I continue to get great stories about first jobs and wanted to share another today. I met Dave Fauth through my work at Gist and we've gotten together on my travels through Washington, DC and a couple of events including the most recent Defrag conference in Denver.
I always enjoy our discussions and he shared the following two jobs with me:
The first job I had was working on our farm growing up. We never got paid for it but we always had to show up. It didn't matter whether it was raining, snowing, cold or hot, you had to show up and work. Some days you would be working until 10 or 11 at night but the job had to get done. Once the job was done, we had time to play baseball or go over to our neighbors to play wiffle ball. I remember my dad saying that if you want to get off of the farm, you need to study and do well in school.
Lessons learned:
- Work is hard.
- Show up.
- The job needs to be done before you can go off and enjoy what you want to do.
My first paying job was as a cadet at the US Merchant Marine Academy. We went out to sea on US merchant vessels for about five months during my sophomore and my junior year at school. We were paid $480 a month or as we liked to say, $16 a day, $2 an hour. I worked alongside the regular engineers and when there was work to be done, we worked some long days and nights. I remember joking that when we were working over 16 hour days, we were getting paid less than a dollar an hour. There was a ton to learn and it was a lot of fun. Since we worked hard and since we didn't have a lot of money, the officers that we worked for took care of us in port. We didn't have to pay when we all went out to eat or drink. They knew we had put in the effort and that we didn't have the money that they did. (Dave is on the right)
Lessons learned:
- You don't know everything. While some of the work was mundane and it seemed like anyone could do it, there were a lot of things that I needed to learn. Listen, watch, and do and you will learn a lot, especially from those that have spent a lifetime doing whatever work you are interested in.
- Take care of those that are working for you. Get to know them. Be generous when you can be.
Awesome stuff! Thanks Dave!
Want to share your first job? Email me and I'll post it here. Also be sure to read about my first job here.
Venture Vice 