What little thing as a kid had a huge effect on your later life?

[RobbieB]

I had a couple;

1) When I was a kid (8 years age) I received a dime a week for picking up dog poo. Frankly the job stunk and the pay sucked. Since we lived close to a golf course that was surrounded by fields we (a buddy and I) found a lot of golf balls hit over the fence which we sold to golfers in the parking lot. Mostly we got a quarter to a half each, a dime was for one in pretty bad shape and I could make a couple of dollars a week doing this. A job that was fun and paid well.

2) When I was 10 I built a crystal radio out of junk in the basement and tuned AM stations with it. Music from junk. That was almost magic.

Which led to a degree in Electrical Engineering and jobs on the sales side in the automation industry. Which has served me well my whole career and now keeps me in wagyu beef and other savory things in my retirement -

 

[bigcmagor]

Like others, as a kid, if I wanted money in my pocket I had to earn it myself. Aside from shoveling neighbors driveways before school in the winter and mowing lawns in the summer, I learned the best way to make money was selling candy at school.


Started small but quickly ramped up. Ended up buying candy in bulk at the drug store at a discount and located vacant lockers around school to store inventory. Sold everything at a 100% markup and ended up getting caught by the school authorities for two reasons. One, I always had a crowd around me between classes conducting business and two, the cafeteria was complaining that sales were down as students were spending their lunch money on my products instead of theirs. I was clearing $50-$75 per day and this was the 1970's.


Ended up having to divulge all of my inventory stashes which were confiscated and even got a paddling by the principal out of the deal. So much for encouraging budding entrepreneurs.

 

[braumeister]

When I was 10 I built a crystal radio

Couldn't agree more. That was the most magical thing imaginable in those days. As AM radio gradually dies out, that will be one more thing that's incomprehensible to future generations.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Like others, as a kid, if I wanted money in my pocket I had to earn it myself. Aside from shoveling neighbors driveways before school in the winter and mowing lawns in the summer, I learned the best way to make money was selling candy at school.


Started small but quickly ramped up. Ended up buying candy in bulk at the drug store at a discount and located vacant lockers around school to store inventory. Sold everything at a 100% markup and ended up getting caught by the school authorities for two reasons. One, I always had a crowd around me between classes conducting business and two, the cafeteria was complaining that sales were down as students were spending their lunch money on my products instead of theirs. I was clearing $50-$75 per day and this was the 1970's.

Ended up having to divulge all of my inventory stashes which were confiscated and even got a paddling by the principal out of the deal. So much for encouraging budding entrepreneurs.

Hilarious. Thanks for the laugh!

 

[zedd]

I was born in a log cabin that I built with my bare hands. I heard later on that Chuck Norris did the same thing.

I learned early on that nobody is going to do your homework for you.

 

[razztazz]

I learned early on that nobody is going to do your homework for you.

No but you can copy somebody else's

 

[I was misinformed]

Wow, as you can see from some of the replies, this topic has dredged up some deeply negative memories as well as positive ones from folks here. Oddly, in the last few months I have been spending an unprecedented amount of time recalling so much from my earlier life (partly stimulated by an opportunity I had to mentor much a younger colleague and provide him with career/life advice).

Honestly, thinking about the topic of this thread led me to some dark/scary as well as enlightening experiences in a not-too-fondly remembered childhood.....

On the positive side - and certainly a "little thing" that may really have affected my whole life - was a quiet morning at age ~12 yrs that I spent sitting on the floor of my bedroom reading my older brother's (excellent) high school physics textbook. Specifically I was captivated by the discussion of Newton's discovery of the law of gravity and how it explained Kepler's laws (discussion simplified to circular orbits, of course). From the end of that morning I literally never had a doubt that I wanted to study physics in college and getting a college degree in physics became my prime goal. This choice was made without any other input - my parents were high-school dropouts, I had nothing resembling a role model (I never met any educated adults other than my teachers).

It is odd that it seems I can still feel the size and weight of that book in my hands although I never owned it or even spent more than a few hours total with it. The book was written by the PSSC (Physical Science Study Committee) ~60 years ago and I am pleased to see that the PSSC is still remembered well enough to have a Wikipedia page.

 

[samclem]

Being an Eagle Scout. They stress "Be Prepared" and "Do a good turn daily.". Scouts basically taught us to be givers in life.

And Eagle Scouts were most often very successful in whatever endeavour they were part of.

Never even knew an Eagle scout, because that wasn't important in my circles. We all just attained First Class and stopped there.

But I will agree that Scouting was the most wonderful formative experience for me. Growing up in NYC, I was fortunate to belong to a great troop with great adult leaders. We went away on a weekend camping trip almost every month, and for two weeks every summer.

Scouting taught me to be self-reliant, and "Be Prepared" was the best motto I've ever found. You just haven't lived until you've spent a weekend tent camping in 10°F weather with a foot of snow on the ground.

+1. Scouting influenced me a lot. I wasn't the most dedicated scout (yep, I made it only to First Class), but the standards of scouting resonated with me. A kid learns a lot of useful things as a member and leader of a patrol of peers--with virtually no formal authority except what they grant you. Life at home was a bit "chaotic," so our troop was some stability I could count on. We had tremendous adult leaders.

Paper route. Taught me about collecting money, paying bills, being responsible and on time.

Amen. Collecting--what a nightmare. And after I had ridden my bike across 12 miles of hills every day for a month to deliver those papers and maybe made $30, I had a very good appreciation for that money, I did not waste it.

 

[scrabbler1]

A few things.


(1) Being introduced to Strat-o-Matic baseball as a 10-year-old back in 1973. This cards-and-dice game combined my budding interest in baseball with numbers and math, my favorite subject. I played the game a lot in the 1970s and 1980s before taking a layoff from the game until I resurrected my interest in it back in 2005. I added some cards, teams, and complete season sets from the 1970s and 1980s to my collection in the last 13 years and enjoy the game today.


(2) Being introduced to BASIC programming language when I was 14 years old in the 9th grade. I liked programming a lot and when combined with my love of math and numbers, I turned that into a successful and well-paying career for 23 years until I ERed in 2008.


(3) I remember receiving some small dividend checks for the one share of Ford Motor Co. my uncle had given me shortly after I was born. When my mom took me to the bank to deposit it into my passbook savings account, sometimes it would credit my account with accrued interest if I hadn't been to the bank in a while. These two things planted the early seeds into my mind that I could make money without having to do anything for it. Being able to ER and live off the dividends of my investments is the culmination of that early lesson.

 

[jollystomper]

Best positive experience: My parents buying the World Book Encyclopedia set and the annual updates when I was in grade school. I read every volume at least twice. That knowledge pushed my mind beyond the bad neighborhood I grew up in and even at that age taught me that education would be a key factor in improving myself.

"Best" negative experience: coming home from grade school one day and finding the body of "Ned" in the inner vestibule of the apartment building I lived in. "Ned" was a old guy to me, but probably no older than his early 30's. He was a drug addict (or, as the term was back then, "junkie") who would hang around the neighborhood. Because my parents were firm but kind to him, he would look out for me and my siblings. Some mornings I would see him and he'd always say "good you going to school. Study so you don't end up like me". At first I thought he was sleeping... but seeing the needle sticking out of his arm, I ran and got my mother. He was dead. That experience is the biggest reason I have kept completely away from any type of "recreational" drugs. It has made it very easy for me to turn them down and walk away when offered.

 

[Live And Learn]

I grew up in the ghetto but my parents scraped up enough to send me to Catholic School. My fondest memories are of going to Mass with my grandmother who lived 2 blocks away from me. <after deleting 15 drafts of this sentence to be more PC I'm just going to say it how I feel it> God is good and I trust Him completely. I've known this all my life but have lived it more since ER.

 

[HFWR]

When I was delivered, the doctor told my DM that they were very sorry, that they did all they could, but the little bastard is still alive...

I was three or so merit badges away from Eagle Scout, when I got a driver’s license, and discovered girls. End of story...

 

[Montecfo]

"You will never have anything unless you save and invest".

-a 25 year old divorced mom of 2, who worked as a clerk, was heard to say this to her 6 and 7 year old sons who were sitting in the back seat of her used VW Beetle, as she backed down the driveway of the 1000 sf home she had recently bought in Oak Cliff (Dallas) Tx, circa 1965.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

1) Paper route from age 9 to 18. Saved almost every penny, graduated HS with $11K. Set the course for ER.

2) Spending many hours at the library reading, sometimes several books per day in the summer. Eventually learned to read much faster than normal, again very useful as an adult.

3) Spent many hours practicing math. Decided at age 10 that I could save $1M dollars in 40 years of work and retire early.

 

[Winemaker]

I, too, became an Eagle Scout. The best quote from that experience " You only get out of life, what you put in to it". Thank God for Catholic grade school, high school, and support from hard working parents.

 

[target2019]

I remember slogans from my youth in the 60's. One of theses was:
"We Never Guess, We Look It Up!"

I recall the saying once a month or so. Just looked it up, and see that it was part of being indoctrinated to the World Book Encyclopedia. A salesman probably came to school in the third grade. Not sure if we ever got those, but we did have a long shelf with 100's of books. There was an older encyclopedia set, and I remember trying to convince Mom that we needed updates.

I look up a great deal of information as part of the job. I did read many books as a child, but far fewer as a teen, and then adult.

 

[DrRoy]

I don't know what started it off but I was a saver from early on. I would take my haul from a candy event (Halloween, Easter, birthday, Christmas) and fairly well make it last until the next event, so I always had some candy. That was good practice for saving money, and I RE'd last year at 57.

 

[frayne]

Remember my Dad telling me I could have anything in the world as long as I worked for it and paid for it. Told my son the exact same thing.

 

[mystang52]

I made a joke earlier, this one is a bit more sedate. Not an earth shattering event, but still it changed me for the better: In first grade class, as we were all learning to read, I had to stand up and read aloud a portion of a book the class was reading. My teacher made a big deal over how well I read, and told the class she was sending a note home to my Mom that I should get a library card.
Mom immediately did so, and I took out 3 books. I still remember the 3 books were about a cop, an elephant, and a ship on the ocean. Read all 3 in one afternoon, and I was hooked on reading for life.
Sort of related, when I was about 8 my parents let me stay up late to watch the movie "A Night to Remember." I became fascinated by the Titanic story . Next day I took out the book of the same name, and was very proud of myself for reading a grown-up book. To this day the subject still intrigues me.

 

[Downtown]

+1 Paper Route

+1 Scouting

Like many others in this thread, those two early experiences shaped my life in many ways. I ended up graduating from the US Naval Academy, becoming a Navy pilot, and later had a successful career in enterprise software sales. I attribute most of my career successes to those early life lessons.

P.S. When collecting for the newspaper, I never understood why an adult would say “I can’t find my checkbook right now. Can you come back later?” Sometimes multiple times. Now, I realize they were juggling other financial obligations and I was low on the totem pole. I learned to be polite but persistent - they eventually paid up! ;-)

 

[REWahoo]

In an assembly when I was in middle school, the principal told me to stand up. He then told the entire school that I had thrown a rock that morning and broken one of the windows in the gym. He went on to say how disappointed he was in my conduct and thoroughly embarrassed me in front of the entire school. I was totally shocked and humiliated.

Problem was I had no idea of what he was talking about. I hadn't been anywhere near where that window was broken that day.

That taught me to never, ever assume someone was guilty without significant proof.

I'm the guy you want on your jury if you're ever accused of a crime.

 

[Dawg52]

I was a 'Leave it to Beaver' kind of kid. Good kid but sometimes got into trouble out of ignorance. Learned many life lessons as a result.

My Dad bought me a golf wedge as a 10 year old and I started banging balls at the family country place. At 13 he bought me my first set of golf clubs and signed me up at the local muni golf club. Back then they had cheap summer monthly rates($12mo) for students. He would drop me off on the way to work and my mom pick me up later in the day. A cheap way to keep me busy and out of their hair but a sport I play today. Odds are I would never have picked it up later in life on my own.

 

[scrabbler1]

Posts from others here about libraries, encyclopedias, and public speaking reminded me about those things when I was a kid.


When I was a kid, my parents bought me a children's encyclopedia called the Golden Book Encyclopedia. It was much smaller than a regular set you would find in a library, and was often good enough to help me in my book reports in the lower grades of school. No internet back then in the 1970s, so to have this research tool at my fingertips was pretty useful.


An English teacher I had back then had us do short speeches to the class a few times a year. While it was often pretty scary to get up in the front of the class and read a prepared speech on some topic, having that foundation did help me a lot when having to do public speaking over the years which followed, from college to my working years to my volunteer work (and even when I dabbled with square dance calling about 10 years ago). That English teacher was far from my favorite teacher, but I do give him credit for this.


I worked in libraries a few times when I was a kid, starting with my grade school libraries to my first job as a page in my local public library to a page in my college library. This made me realize the value of a library as a free, public resource. I always felt comfortable in a library and know my way around one, including the Dewey Decimal System for classifying books. Even today, more than 30 years since I began shelving books, whenever I see a book out of place I move it to its proper place (if it is close by). Old habits die hard LOL!

 

[Music Lover]

I was a young child and read a newspaper article about mortgages. I forget the exact numbers, but basically it gave an example of the first mortgage payment being $400 and $390 of that was interest with only $10 being applied against the principle. Then it said "congratulations, you now own a door knob".

That was the very first time I had heard about interest on debt and it has stuck in my mind ever since, and is one of the main reasons that I hate debt.

 

[misshathaway]

That taught me to never, ever assume someone was guilty without significant proof.

I'm the guy you want on your jury if you're ever accused of a crime.

I'm glad I didn't have to go through something like that to get my lesson, which is also about the nature of people .

When I was grade school age I thought that there were "good" people and "bad" people and that you could tell by looking at them which type they were. I think that came from the depiction of 50's TV villains. Then one day I was listening to The Monkees "Shades of Grey", which was something like "There is no black and white. Only shades of grey". After some puzzling, I got that it was about people and I was astonished. I remember that exact moment, including where I was in the house.