Many people talk about their career starting with a paper route or working at McDonalds but I had a much more unique path that matched the crazy business journey of my Dad and most of his brothers.  All of my Dad’s brothers had their own companies from early on and most of them had multiple companies that they juggled. They were all idea people. Discussions between my uncles was an intense banter of the next big idea and how they had written off their trip to Hawaii.

The first semi-formal business arrangement I remember making was with my Dad when he offered to cover the purchase of a small barn full of pigs. They were actually piglets that were barely weaned from their mother when we bought them at the auction mart. My Dad and I bid on them, won the bid and then took them home. He helped me buy feed and I did all the manual work of setting up fences, shelter, bedding, water and food. My best guess is that I was 10 years old at the time. I remember writing down the purchase price and all the food expenses as they came in. After 6 months or so we brought the the much larger pigs back to market and sold them at the same auction mart that we had bought them at. Every week I would listen to the hog report on the radio to see what the hog prices were doing. This may have been my first serious investment and I tracked its value faithfully until I could realize a profit.

That’s really the only livestock business experience I remember other than my uncontrolled explosion of rabbit litters. We only started with a few rabbits from a neighbour but before we knew it there were rabbits everywhere. This chaos never turned into a business venture so I’ll save that story for another time.

Most of my growing up years I worked by the hour. My standing wage was $5/hr for pretty much everything useful that I did around the farm or on one of Dad’s construction sites. I got $1/hr for spending money and the other $4 went into an education fund. This was enough to motivate me as I saved up for a road bicycle and even an early computer that plugged into a TV.

As I got older, my Dad started to give me the option of doing piece work or contract work. That’s when I realized that getting paid on results could get a lot more lucrative when I found more efficient ways to do things faster. Some of the most successful contracts I took on were insulating houses by the square foot of floor space. This type of work fit nicely into my university breaks and in between summmer jobs. I could finish off a house in a few weekends or after my exams were done and my summer job hadn’t started yet.

These individual contracts gave me a sense of accomplishment and a hit of proud satisfaction, getting paid for results that I had delivered. The company I worked for was almost always my Dad’s company and that’s where I got sheilded from the real stresses associated with hunting for contracts. Although I’ve always looked fondly on the idea of contract work I definitely saw how the stress of hunting for business and the stress of going bankrupt was often the flip side of that accomplishment high that I experienced.

Looking back now I’m incredibly greatful for all the experiences I got growing up with a Dad who could teach me about business and earning money. It’s kept me in a lifelong tension of keeping my eyes open for opportunities and making sure that my risks are as low as practically possible.