See if I can add anything I haven’t said before
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My family is extremely wealthy & I inherited billions at 15 years old.
My fam was poor but my grandpa ran a small biz & taught me the most about $. His gifts to me growing up were savings bonds. He was the one that got me to put my lawn mowing $ at Edward d jones to save for land. He had me do the nastiest jobs growing up… at his house doing his lawn, landscaping or any crap Job. Then- I’d go to his plumbing business & get the truly disgusting jobs!!! Like - really bad. $4.25. He made me do the nastiest horrible jobs by design. He didn’t tell me this but I figured it out later In life. He drove a car that was so old and nasty- it pissed my grandma off so bad & I know he smiled how much he knew it bothered her that he drove POS cars but could afford whatever he wanted. To this day I still drive some embarrassments, by design. Grandpa & my stepdad were hard working, no frills, all lessons & sometimes ball busters. I’d be screwed without their influence.
1) Some unique things I think helped me… I was an obsessed baseball card collector from 8 to maybe 14??? I learned how to wheel & deal. I got really good. By the time I was maybe 12 or so, I had it down …. I was a deal maker …. “I’ll give u 20 Ricky Henderson rookie cards for that ONE 1955 Mickey mantle” or sub in any combo of “somewhat common cards” that added up to say, $500 to trade for ONE card worth say, $350….. I got a pile of: Willy Mays, maybe 10+ Mickey mantles, Hank Aaron, Roger Maris,, on & on. To this day, I have a stack of cards maybe 6” thick that are worth probably 10x as much as a giant shelf stacked with literal TONS of cards from the 80’s & early 90’s. That trading taught me a lot that translated into cars later & then land.
To this day though…. Problem…. A small fortune in stupid old baseball cards I still never cashed in and wish I could trade it in for land but pain in butt to get graded & sold. The lessons learned are far more valuable than the sizable amount sitting in some room. I’ll pry Just give em to my kids.
2) hail damage cars…. No one wanted to deal with em…. I’d fill em, sand em, paint em …. Detail & fix whatever needed - grand or 2. Dealing with stuff no one else wanted to mess with… for sure translated into farms!!!!! How many farms “this isn’t selling cause it has this_____ this_____ & this_____ wrong With it” & I’d buy, fix it and make $…. Absolutely the same mindset!!!!
3) my jobs, no joke, this list is spot on…. A) being my grandpas be-itch for awful jobs- endless disgusting things mentioned above. B) Working at super market cleaning produce rooms with bleach in a spray bottle, scrubbing & spraying down- did that for a whole summer. C) Worked at no less than 10 factories- summer or even winter & spring break: building shipping pallets, assembling dash board for cars, doing inventory counts, assembling farm parts, etc. D) weeding flower fields 3 summers for $4.25/hour. By hand. I was minority & most spoke Spanish. E) waiting tables at red lobster. F) delivering pizzas. G) 8-10 years old: raked leaves for $5 a lawn. H) 10 years old on…. 3 to maybe 10 lawn jobs. I) detailed cars for big car dealership & delivered cars. J) 3 internships in college. K) worked cafeteria at college. L) cart boy at Walmart M) any other job u can imagine up that I won’t bother boring u guys with
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I was so fired up to buy land it’s bananas. Like- too extreme. I did know I had to graduate college. It took 2 weeks after i graduated & had my first farm under contract. I over paid for it and should have taken my time more but it did work out. Ok- that’s the fine print SPECIFICS that I don’t think I mentioned most of before.
& yes, I am all for “balance” for how much someone works. Above sounds like a lot right??? & it was…. For some odd reason… I could write as long or longer a list of all the time I spent screwing around & traveling to hunt. How I had the time for all this is kinda crazy - now that im an old man now- doesn’t seem possible. The things youngsters can do it’s astounding.
Now…. Unemployed. Work on farms. Hang with family, church, eat & sleep. Im BORING!!!!
***really random things that shaped me & steered me into land…. In 7th grade, got selected to go to Amazon rainforest to study deforestation With teacher & group of fellow Nerds. I was the anti-nerd of the group but it was part of my molding into a crazed environmentalist. I went 4 hours by boat into Amazon. Traded shoes with indigenous tribes for crazy artifacts they had. Caught piranhas, fer-de-lance (super deadly snake that freaked everyone out!!!), giant catfish & some bizarre giant iguana. Lived in Australia for a year & traveled lots of the country/continent & learned so much I won’t type it here. Wild stuff. Went all over Asia to places devastated by man… Malaysia, china, etc- again- made me care deeply about environment. Guess u could say “seen a lot of stuff at young age & thought deeply on this stuff when others were clearly thinking of far different life issues.
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