1994 – 1995 – Classmates - Two of his medical school colleagues expressed an interest in working with him.  Gary had the infrastructure in place.  They became his physician employees.  He opened two more offices, one in Brandon and another in Seminole, payroll increased to seven medical employees, two for the sign company and two doctors and himself operating five offices along with their cost and expenses.     After the first year, things became tight as he realized that he was doing most of the work, while his two employed physicians wanted to be paid like “doctors” but were not getting enough done.  He was carrying his two employed physicians and doing all the surgery and more sophisticated medicine. He stopped making payments on his home mortgage to make ends meet.   He kept all business interests intact and tried to get his physician employees up to speed, but they just were not “him.”  They did not increase their production no matter what Gary did to help or encourage them.  1995 – Bad Advice – Not paying the house mortgage generated threatening letters from the bank and although Gary could cut expenses, that meant either closing offices, and firing employees, physicians or a worst thought selling the billboard company, which he just started to build.   He worked harder on all fronts, medical, billboards and property management.   He asked his bank at the time to re-amortize his sign company debt, but they stated: “The only way they can re-amortize your debt is if you declare bankruptcy,” Keith said. “I do not need to go into bankruptcy.  No one in his family has ever done that and I do not need to do that.  My sign company and medical practice are both profitable, I just need enough savings on debt that will enable me to make my mortgage.” “I’m sorry, but my hands are tied,” Keith crossed his arms defiantly.  “So that is it, I need to do something that is really not necessary,” he stood up. “That is the only way,” Keith stood up, Gary shook his hand and left the bank. Trying to avoid bankruptcy at all costs, he terminated his billboard salesperson and her assistant at the sign company and closed that office which was the location of his first medical office.   They were both furious since they knew that they did an excellent job and he agreed, but he had to save his house and take care of his family.  The bank began foreclosure proceedings, and he declared bankruptcy to save his house.  That was the worst financial decision of his life.   As a condition of the bankruptcy, he had to escrow his mortgage payment that he could not afford in the first place.   Secondly, there was legal paperwork that took him away from his medical practice and running the billboard company on his own. He had to pay legal and accounting fees, which made the condition worse. 1996 – Tainted Credit – Gary could not afford to make the escrow payment on the house, and the bankruptcy made him a credit risk regardless of his assets or education.   An accountant from New Jersey came to his office, how Gary met him he does not recall.   The accountant heard of his being a doctor and getting into the billboard business, and after reviewing the performance of Gary’s billboard company, he wanted in. “We can get investors to put money up to build signs, you help us put together the business and they will give you a percentage interest with no financial obligations.” Gary was dead regarding credit, and he had nothing to lose.  He took trips to New Jersey and New York along with their affiliates reviewing potential billboard locations in the five boroughs of New York and New Jersey.  While they had him as their expert, they ran off haphazardly tying up locations where there was no possible path to getting the appropriate state or local permits.  They said not to worry. “We’re connected and we know people,” Joe A stated.   Joe A and his two partners ran a sizable accounting firm in New Jersey, and he had trusted that they dealt with reputable businessmen.  On a few rides in New York, he met with Joe T., Steve F., and Charles S., who pointed out various locations in the five boroughs where they could get leases for billboards.   Between those trips and working in Florida, Gary built and acquired more billboard sites in the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County with the accountant’s funds.    He operated his five medical practices and kept his billboard company running himself, doing all the sales, and business operations. 1996 – Homelessness - Gary was out of bankruptcy, but since he could not escrow the payments as required, he had to deed the house to the bank.   Gary and his wife, along with their two children moved into a motel and their belongings into a truck, which was put into a storage yard.  This was his wife’s darkest hour, but he had to keep the business going otherwise the hole would get so deep nothing would resurrect them.   Friends of theirs who purchased the house down the street from his model home, offered their house to Gary and his family since they spent most of their time in California.  Gary and his family lived there for three months until they found a rental home in Dunedin, on Deer Hound Way.   1997 – Momentum – Gary and his newfound accountant partners-built signs in the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County, while none of the leases in New York and New Jersey resulted in any permits from either the local or State of New York or New Jersey to build any signs. The landlord who rented the house to Gary and his family on Deerhound Way lost the house to the bank and they had to vacate in short order.    His wife found them another rental home in Weatherstone in Safety Harbor, where they meet the Stona family, composed of Vince, his wife Beth, Vince Jr. and Savannah. 1998 – Billboard Sale – In the summer, Gary was approached by Republic Media, a division of Wayne Huizenga Enterprises, the famed Waste Management entrepreneur and owner of Blockbuster, and other businesses.    Dare Hawkins, a kind and charismatic officer of that corporation, made Gary and his partners an offer and they accepted.  Gary spent 10 years building those billboards and had practiced medicine for 15 years. Soon after the sale, Gary sat down with his employed physicians, who were both classmates from medical school. “Guys I’m out, if you want to stay on your own you can have it, it’s all yours,” He could not believe that he did this.  He did four years of college, four years of medical school, one year of surgical training and spent 15 years building his medical business.  “Then, I’ll take the Brandon Office,” Dr. Donald B. stated. “I don’t want any of this, I did all this before, and it didn’t work out.   I’m just going to do nursing homes,” Dr. John H., stood and paced. “OK, then I am going to let everyone go tomorrow, and I’ll keep just the Holiday office and one employee,” standing, he shook each of their hands and gave them a hug. Gary videotaped his office at 2323 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor, which at the time was his flagship.  He designed the layout and decorated the office.  There was one operating room, four treatment rooms, two bathrooms, one with a shower (his), a waiting room, front business office and a 500 square foot management office leased from the adjacent Allstate Insurance office.  Since he lived in Tarpon Springs, he would go to Bally’s Health Spa, just north of Countryside Blvd on US Hwy 19 early in the morning, go to the office, shower and be ready to see patients by 9 AM.   When he passes by that office location today, the box for the central vacuum system that he built is still there on the exterior wall of the building. Regarding his personal rented residence, their landlord pocketed the rent for the home they leased from him in Weatherstone.  His house for the third time, no fault of his own, went into foreclosure.   Gary tried to purchase it from the bank, but they wanted too much.   His wife found their current house in Ridgemoor, and acting as their agent, Ms. Stona was the real estate agent of record in the sale, dated July 1998. Gary closed his medical office at 2323 Curlew Road, some of the equipment he gave to Dr. Salvatore Delellis, a fellow friend and podiatrist in Tarpon Springs, and the rest of it he moved into the garage of his new house in Ridgemoor, off of East Lake Road. Ironically, this house was a foreclosed asset which they purchased from the bank.   It was totally outdated even in 1998, and year after year Gary tackled one project after another doing carpentry, electrical, plumbing, tile, granite, and marble work.  With the proceeds of the billboard sale, he paid off every debt he had, both private and institutional, and had a generous sum left over.   Mr. Vincent Stona having witnessed his windfall, approached Gary with the billboards owned by Sunken Gardens, the botanical theme park now owned by the City of St. Petersburg. They purchased the signs as a partnership and began to rebuild them and clear the obstructing vegetation.  The signs covered the west coast of Florida from Tampa to the Georgia border.  It took 16 hours to drive all of them once.  They were all made of wood and some had to be completely rebuilt due to years of neglect.  They called this company as it is today, SG Outdoor. Gary began to build another billboard company in Florida, along the undeveloped area of Land O Lakes, along US Hwy 41, SR 52 and SR 54.   His brother David Barbosa, worked for him finding billboards to build in New Jersey.   They found one location on US  1 & 9 in Newark, New Jersey, had it built, and sold it, but those funds were commandeered by his New Jersey fund raisers, and they never saw a nickel of it.  He was not going to challenge his only source of financing.    Gary had another six years of tainted credit before he could seek independent funds. 1999 – DO IT AGAIN – Republic Media had kept in contact with Gary and his accountant partners and informed them that if they continued to develop signs in Tampa Bay, that they would purchase them again.  Using funds from New Jersey, most likely raised from questionable sources, Gary continued to develop new billboard signs in Pasco County.    He built signs in Pasco County wherever they could find a willing landlord and a roadway, regardless of the marketability, since they were building them for a quick flip.  US Hwy 41 in Land O Lakes, SR 52 and SR 54 were both two lane roads, one lane in each direction.    Gary also worked with Vince perfecting the newly acquired SG Outdoor signs, while he still practiced medicine in one office two days a week, and one office one day a week, working with one assistant. 2000 – TURNING POINTS - The movie Gladiator came out and Gary was transformed back to his ancestral roots in ancient Rome.   Mesmerized by the image of a woman in a black bikini, one weekend he wrote three pages of what would later morph over twenty years into five novels, over one thousand pages, and a screenplay for a motion picture. That series is known as “Curse of Athena” and is set in the second century.   In movie lingo, the story is “Ben Hur with a female lead.”   Gary wrote all five novels, the back pages of each book and designed the covers.  He is currently finalizing the last edit and will self-publish the books.(Click for Trailer) Republic Media sold out to OutFront Media; their billboard buyer was gone. Gary was left holding a new inventory of billboards that were on secondary roadways in the middle of nowhere.   This was the perfect time to buy out his financial partners in New Jersey and keep the new inventory for himself.   He found David Westburg of Midwest Bankers Group, and his firm agreed to finance his new company, Champion Outdoor Real Estate Assets, Inc., (www.championoutdoorads.com) but it would not be cheap.  The interest rate was 12 % and all payments went to interest first.  Gary analyzed being in medical practice and once he did the numbers and the time spent, which took him away from leasing his billboards and running that business, he closed the last of his medical offices. He focused on leasing the signs and running the billboard business.   He read books about writing and screenwriting, attended workshops, courses and critique groups.   Signs were leased, he worked on his newly acquired house, learned how to write novels and thought about how he would rise up and create his own prosperity. His credit was still compromised, and he would not be granted any new debt since billboards at the time were not real estate, nor were they personal property, but considered by the banks to be in-between personal and real property.  What banks cannot define they would not finance.

1994-2003