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Ahh, nursery days, nursery days. I too would be standing on that assembly line or cleaning up with you (fortunately not the fingers) and said to myself multiple times I’ll do anything to keep me from doing this the rest of my life.” You’ve come a long way Derek. And to think, you quit that job to play basketball and watch MTV the rest of the summer.
Replyhaha – did you expect any less? That was the first time we’d had MTV
ReplySounds like we all had very similar summer jobs. I can remember long hot, boring as hell days working at MZH. Jobs varied daily, hourly it seemed; packaging, shipping, stacking bags, bidding from bosses ( yes that was a job), and the worst… hauling trash to the City Dump. Come to think of it it really wasn’t bad at all, it got me away from the plant.
Derek- keep it up. Sounds like your on the right track. I believe your 100% correct in that an online business model is were it’s at, limitless income, not geographically fixed to one spot, and as few employees as possible. My idea business.
Looking forward to seeing where this journey takes you.
Jason Garrison
ReplyHey Jason – so good to hear from you! Long time no see.
Hope everything is going well 🙂
ReplyYour story really resonates. During college, I worked as an aide in the school district’s special-ed program, but over the summer months, I was a “helper” (grunt) for the district’s HVAC crew. A primary reason for being there, I observed, was because they needed a young man to do jobs the old-boys’ bodies just couldn’t do anymore. (It’s been a litany of mine ever since: “Doing young man’s work is fine, as long as you are a young man. But it’s really lousy to be an old man doing young man’s work…” My sons have heard it countless times.)
It was a great summer job because every June I was really sick of classrooms, tests, etc. But after a summer of crawling through a 100+ yards of asbestos-contaminated pipe-chases to rebuild a steam traps (and other assorted fun projects), I was very ready to get back to school so I wouldn’t have to do that kind of work the rest of my life. It was a very good experience. (Oh, and I nearly lost the end of my ring finger…)
ReplyGreat share.. Those experiences are extremely valuable because they leave an imprint. I remember that day that I picked up the finger like it was yesterday – I swore on the way home that I had no idea what I was going to do but I wasn’t going to be stuck doing anything like that.
And now when I get bummed or something doesn’t go exactly as planned – I always think back to the hot summer days with sawdust covering my body and having to clean up the trail of blood and picking up another man’s finger.
It really puts it all in perspective then 🙂
ReplyYep. It’s been nearly four years since I started bootstrapping my marketing/communications consultancy. Plenty of sweat, and occasional tears, but no blood! I will say, though, that on those difficult days, being positive, optimistic and energized must become a conscious decision.
ReplyI show people strategies I use to get traffic with Google and how I make money online. I’ve also released several pieces of software to help streamline the SEO process.
ReplyInteresting. Over the last three years, I’ve been boot-strapping a marketing and communications firm in my small market. The good thing about that is I’m pretty much the only game in town. The bad thing is that while there is a need for what I can do, the awareness of that need is only gradually developing…. That said, things are coming along.
The bottom line, is that I try to provide my clients the benefit of my knowledge of how to communicate with their most valuable audiences. I’m always scouting for new ways to accomplish this. So far, on-line engagement has provided limited utility because of the small geographic focus. That said, I don’t believe that’s how it will stay, and I’m keen to be ahead of the curve with it. I look forward to seeing what you’re doing and watching for opportunities to either apply it to my own operations, or offer direction to clients.
ReplyWOW… forgot all about that type of work, until reading this. Have to share. For me, after HS in the summer, I was building roof trusses at a factory. You’d hammer all the wooden joints together with a large metal plate, which had multiple razor sharp teeth. Quite a few cuts there, but the killer was the machine press you put the truss in that squeezed the plates together for the entire truss. Two large rolling drums at waist height, like an old fashion washing machine ringer, only each drum was about 3 feet in diameter. Well, sometimes you would jump in the middle of the truss to carry it over to the press. (They were very long. Just look at your roof from the side of your house.) So if you didn’t have enough people holding it up to help carry it over, you got in the middle for more leverage. Of course you’re suppose to get out as the press is pulling the truss through. But that could be just a few feet before it pulls you through. Everybody did this, but the story was one person didn’t make it out in time. Now this was before I started there. And thinking about it now, I have to wonder if it was true or just a scare tactic. Either way, gruesome to think about. But no question it would flatten you out. Glad today that I’m typing away with all 10 digits and not doing young men work. Too slow these days to move that fast.
ReplyYou have my attention! Can’t wait for the rest of this series! THANKS for taking the time to motivate others!
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