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

[calmloki]

Read a bunch as a kid - didn't matter much what it was, I was a voracious skinny dreamer and books were my friends. Remember at 10-11 reading some book from maybe 1920 or so with a come-on title like "How I made $100,000 in ten short years!" - something like that.
The author spent time as a young man living in a cheap one room NY apartment, bathroom down the hall. He wrote about how he scrounged tough chunks of meat from the butcher and slow cooked them all day on a hot plate while he was at work. According to him these cow elbows and knee pads were miraculously turned into the most tender delicious delicacies by that cooking process. Somehow I think not eating all day while at work may have seasoned his view. He credited his landlady at the time with a saying that directed his life later: "tenants stay to suit themselves: if they don't be suited, out they go"!
As I recall, he later got into chicken farming, which scaled up quickly and afforded him the means to get into buying and renting apartments.

I remember feeling the old landlady was hard-bitten and didn't care for her attitude, but the first part of her saying made sense. As a landlord I have tried to not take it personally if a tenant wants to move. Also tried to make changes to places to suit myself; not the tenant du jour, because tenants move.

The part that changed my life the most though was the description of turning tough undesirable things into something good - all it took was knowing it could be done, spending plenty of time with persistent modest energy expended to convert the undesirable into food, and being hungry enough to appreciate the result.

 

[COcheesehead]

I grew up lower middle class. We had enough, but never more. I learned early that if I wanted money for anything, it had to be earned. That meant odd jobs for neighbors, rummage sales and eventually a real job when I could get a work permit at age 12.
I eventually started 2 businesses and helped with a third in my adult life. Those early lessons stuck. If it was to be, it was up to me.

 

[Bamaman]

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.

 

[aja8888]

Not really that "little thing", but a collection of them.

I was raised with poor, alcoholic parents who fought a lot and were separated several times. Somehow, I made it to 17 years old and out of high school. Parents didn't attend my HS graduation. I left home at that time with not much in my possession and swore I would not be like them. Somehow, I achieved that goal.

 

[REWahoo]

This sums it up for me:

 

[Ready]

When I was about four years old my parents took me on a vacation. We were walking down the street and I raised my arm up for my Mom or Dad to hold my hand. A stranger looked down at me and said "I'm not your Mom, kid". I looked back and my family was a block away, looking at a map, oblivious that their kid had just been separated from them.

I learned right there that if I'm going to make it in this world, it's not going to be with the help of my parents. And I learned to never rely on them again.

 

[Dash man]

Sadly I learned how quickly friends or family can turn on you. I’ve had trust issues since then and have protected myself from being hurt seriously many times thanks to my wall of caution. Even today I pretty much only really trust DW and DS, the priests at my parish, and God.

 

[gauss]

Parents supported and encouraged my interest in electricity/magnetism and later electronic s/computers. Parents also very much valued education. Degrees in EE resulted.

Additionally, parent's divorce also made me think really hard about what would be important to me in a good spouse.

All worked out better than I could have ever thought.

-gauss

 

[45th Birthday]

When I was maybe five or six, I learned a few things. One, confirmation my parents were Santa when I saw my dad wheeling bikes for me and my brother out of my grandmother's house across the street.

Two, the bikes (and I believe all the toys we received that year) were used. I knew then that while we didn't go hungry, we weren't very well off.

My mother made bread instead of buying it, same with clothes. We never took a vacation as a family where we stayed in a motel/hotel and in fact family vacations (every several years) consisted solely of driving 12 hours to see my other grandparents. Never on a plane.

These events gave me a powerful motivation to make sure I was more successful than that. I appreciate my parents' efforts and sacrifice, and we all turned out OK, but I wanted a more comfortable life.

 

[Red Badger]

I was a hyper kid - - - bordering on feral. Ergo, it was not uncommon for me to be in the dog house when our dad would return home after work travel. I would stress out over my impending doom and demise upon his return. It was never that bad, but in my mind's eye, I was "dead kid walking."

Fast forward 30+ years and my son is a hyper kid, with Aspergers and Tourettes. So, he had a fair amount of deportment dust ups. And I'm a road warrior at the time. I decided early on that any Article 15's, Captain's Mast, or other tribunal would never be on the day I returned home. That day (usually Friday) would be pizza and a movie, or some other quality time together. The next day could be some rough sailing for him, but not the day I returned. Not ever.

 

[braumeister]

Being an Eagle Scout.

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.

 

[97guns]

I remember when I was 8 mowing lawns in the neighborhood, I remember chopping through a guys extension cable that was running to his RV on the street and it severely cut into my profits, I also remover my mom having a bunch of self doctor/diagnosis books she got free somewhere, I was slinging them for $5 and it was pure profit. These 2 occurrences reallly shaped my business sense, I ended up starting a small landscaping business at 19 and ran it until 26.

 

[mystang52]

Well, the Talky Tina episode on Twilight Zone scarred me for life. Does that count?

 

[razztazz]

I was raised with poor, alcoholic parents who fought a lot and were separated several times. Somehow, I made it to 17 years old and out of high school. Parents didn't attend my HS graduation. I left home at that time with not much in my possession and swore I would not be like them. Somehow, I achieved that goal.

I learned right there that if I'm going to make it in this world, it's not going to be with the help of my parents. And I learned to never rely on them again.

Sadly I learned how quickly friends or family can turn on you. I’ve had trust issues since then and have protected myself from being hurt seriously many times thanks to my wall of caution.

I thought it was just me. In my house the parent who was not the alcoholic was the one prone to violence. Heard "When you're 18 you're outta da house!" a lot and not in the good sense. So, taking the hint I tried to join the Coast Guard when I was 12 . Well, I didn't really think it would work. But I did punch out the second I turned 18 though. Teachers and probably every other adult, "elder" and authority figure I knew as a child are held in the same esteem. Good examples of Bad Examples.

 

[ocean view]

My dad retired at 54, I was 13 at the time. From the time I got out of college and started working, my goal was to retire at 54, like dad. I retired at 50 (yay). I didn’t pick this as my “big impact “ moment just because this is ER.org, seeing someone else ER really did set the bar for me.

 

[Big_Hitter]

mowing yards in houston texas in the summertime from ages 10 to 22

 

[skipro33]

My dad and mom fought over money. Mom would sneak the bills from the mail to hide from dad. She wasn't extravagant, she spent the money on stuff like school clothes and such. When dad would find out, he'd go off yelling about how we were going to be thrown out in the street to live. My young imagination had me wondering if I could stay by the curb or actually forced to live in the lanes of traffic. From that time on, I was always fearful I would not have enough saved for my own family.
Then after a few layoffs, I knew I didn't want to be financially dependent on an employer. By 45 I was FI and planned to retire early at 50. I continued to work until 55 just to be sure and now have more than enough to live the lifestyle we want.

 

[travelover]

Paper route. Taught me about collecting money, paying bills, being responsible and on time. A half century later, I still have paper route nightmares where I forget to deliver for a whole week.

 

[NW-Bound]

When I was about 6 or 7, read a juvenile book that talked of Henry Ford, the Wright brothers, and Thomas Edison. They all built cool stuff.

That must have had an influence. I started playing with vacuum tubes when I was 12. Nearly all of my allowance money went for electronic parts.

At 14 or 15, moved up to transistors. I remember buying a serious book on transistor circuits, and was stumped by discussion of Y-parameter and Z-parameter network characterizations of circuits. I did not even know complex numbers at that point (what the heck is this i*i = -1?).

 

[NYEXPAT]

When I was in Kindergarden, I kissed a red haired girl named Charlene, immediately afterward I got punched in the nose by another little boy in the class. My eyes were so glassed over, I never knew who hit me.

I learned to life long lessons:

1. Never date a Redhead.
2. If you don't get caught, it never happened.

 

[Elbata]

In Catholic school, a few times per year we were allowed to buy books that we wanted. (Oh my, I just realized now it was because the school made money off it.)

I remember reading "The Panic In Needle Park". Have always been fascinated with drugs and drug addiction.

 

[CardsFan]

Similar to many here, grew up in a lower middle class family, but unlike some, early life was mostly fun. Grandma and grandpa lived on Cape Cod, an hour and a half away. That was our vacation most of the time, and I loved it!

I remember Grandpa, at 93 (I was 17 when he passed a year later), still using his magnifying glass to look at the stock prices. He didn't have much, but still followed it. That stuck with me. Save, invest, let it work for you.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

When I was young (maybe 12?) my dad was reading a financial book and showed me a chart- its the one that shows the advantage of investing early- one person starts investing at age 21 and invests till 31, second person invests the same amount of money from 35 till 60 and never catches up. Never forgot that, I was determined to save with my very first paycheck and I did!

 

[MRG]

When I was about 6 or 7, read a juvenile book that talked of Henry Ford, the Wright brothers, and Thomas Edison. They all built cool stuff.

That must have had an influence.
..snip.

+1 and my DM.

I remember sitting watching the Mercury liftoffs with her. When I started getting bored, she'd keep it interesting to me.

Later model rockets were fascinating. When the state of PA. made them illegal, she used the opportunity to teach me how to be heard. Pretty cool for a woman who had never worked outside her home.

When my DB and I rebuilt a 1930s sawmill she was encouraging, but afraid. Later when I went into IT the knowledge gained on that mill made me more successful.

I know it may not translate well, but I saw a computer, and it's throughput as a physical machine, just like a mill. It helped me become a pretty good performance person. Simple steps, instruction fetches, executions, physical IO operations...... being done, queuing both a friend and enemy. I'm not sure why, but it all made machines more understandable. It also reminded me of playing in the creek as a kid.

 

[braumeister]

When I was young (maybe 12?) my dad was reading a financial book and showed me a chart- its the one that shows the advantage of investing early- one person starts investing at age 21 and invests till 31, second person invests the same amount of money from 35 till 60 and never catches up. Never forgot that, I was determined to save with my very first paycheck and I did!

I think that's a wonderful story.