|
Sales Success Magazine | Sales Training | Success Stories
How I Went From a Shoe Shine Boy to a Millionaire and Found Passion for Life
A Series Written to Inspire Those Who Want Passion for LifeChapter 1: Young Entrepreneur Click here for "Millionaire" directory. Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. SALES SUCCESS MAGAZINE ©2001,2002,2003 Published 7/20/2003 
I was born in Perry-ton Texas in 1959. When I was two months old my father moved myself, my mother and himself to Sheridan, Wyoming where they raised me. I am the oldest of four children with two sisters and one brother.
My story starts back to early memories of Kindergarten. I remember standing by the door of my kindergarten, I'm not sure of the reason, but I do remember a clear decision I had at that time. I decided that no matter what when I grew up I would be my own boss. I did not want a job that took away my rights to live life as I wanted to without my input and my decisions. I decided this because of my father. I remember him leaving for work and coming home from work everyday. To me this seemed to be a fate worse than death, I did not understand at the time if my father did or did not enjoy his work. However, it seemed to me he was on a treadmill, and was living in chains, bound to his job. Now don't get me wrong. My father is a wonderful man who always supported his family. He went to work even when he was sick, because he believed in doing his job the best he could. His major concern was his family, and that makes him a hero to me. The most important example I had in my life was my father. He taught me to give more than I take, if I am paid to work, do more than I am paid for, always be honest, and do something besides have a regular job the rest of my life. My father had worked in a grocery store most of my life and felt that he had no chance to do anything else. He knew he was in a trap, and he did not want me to fall into it with him. When I started working at the grocery store with him at the age of 16, he told me that he would not allow me to work there for more than two years. I held that job for two and one half years and left for college. We were very poor, and I always was concerned about the family's finances as early as I can remember. I did whatever I could to help bring in money for the family. I watched my father work hard, but it seemed he never could bring in enough money to take away the worries of paying the bills. When I was 10 years old, my father took on the Casper Star Tribune newspaper as an extra job. The Casper Star Tribune was a newspaper from the closest big town to us, Casper Wyoming, population 50,000. Casper was 150 miles away, but for those who lived in Sheridan, Casper and Billings, Montana was the big cities to read about. The Casper Star Tribune was a morning paper, and I would get up with my father to pick up the papers at the truck terminal at 4:00 am. We then counted out the papers and delivered them to all the paper route boys by 5:00 am so that they could have them delivered by 7:00 am. I would count out the papers in the back seat of our little red Mercury while Dad drove to the paper boy's home. The smell of the newspaper ink was overpowering, and I would get car sick riding in the back and looking down at the papers. To this day, when I smell newspaper ink, I become carsick. We worked very hard just to have an extra couple hundred dollars or so a month. My father would settle up with the area supervisor once a month. We were charged for all newspapers sent to us, so if someone did not pay us, we had to take the loss. Many customers would not pay the paper boys for the paper, even after getting timely delivery the whole month. This made the paper boy short of paying Dad, and Dad had to dig it out of his own pocket. He could have insisted that the boy cover it, but he just didn't have the heart. Also, many times at the machines we stocked, people would take more newspapers than they paid for. This also came out of Dad's pocket. Because of this, many times I will still put extra money into a newspaper machine, because I know what the other side is like. One month after Dad settled up with the area supervisor we owed him $20.00. So we had worked the whole month, getting up early, spending gas money, and had nothing to show for it at the end of the month. I should have seen this as a reason to not be in business for yourself, but I never did. I guess it was because Dad encouraged me to do something, anything different than hold a regular job the rest of my life. To get out and fail at your own business was better than to be status quo for the rest of your life in some one else's. That was the final blow on that job for Dad so he quit. Besides, we did not have gas money for the next month. In the summer time I would sell anything I could door to door. And in the winter I would shovel snow for neighbors. Wyoming's biggest commodity is snow. At the age of 12 I was mowing lawns for several people. At age 13 I financed my first major purchase. It was a new ten speed bicycle, which had been invented and put on the market just a short time earlier. I purchased it from Gambles Hardware with my Dad's help, and financed it for $6.00 per week. I mowed lawns for $2.00 each and would make the payments on time every week. Most weeks I made double payments. I had the whole bike paid off except for $12.00 when an early frost hit and stopped the lawn mowing business. My Dad went by and paid off Gambles, which I knew was a burden on him. He did it with a smile, and never complained about it. I think that I had actually made it further on the payments then he expected. I could tell that Dad was always proud of me. This is what gave me self confidence to always keep going and trying new things. When I say that I went further than expected on the bike, I do not mean that Dad thought I was irresponsible. I think he felt I just was biting off more than I could chew. But I can not remember ever hearing, "you cannot do that" from him. You would think that a man who did not feel he had what it took to leave his job and either find a better one or start his own business, would want to let his son keep trying things that seemed out of reach. I knew he was dead serious about me keeping the commitment to pay off that bike. He and the Gambles store owner gave me a lecture about timely payments, and paying off my debt. I remember the worn wooden floor, with the smell of new grease on pipe fittings mixed with the aroma of rubber tires on bicycles. What a wonderful place!! In my mind I can still feel the roughness of the wood flooring as I ground my shoe back and forth with my foot, listening intently to the lecture I was receiving. "If you do not make payments on time, I will come and get your bike", lectured the proprietor. "and if you do not pay in full, you will have to return the bike, even if you only owe a few dollars." He was not a mean man, he just wanted me to understand the seriousness of what I was doing. My father watched me closely as I received my advice on these business affairs. When he and my father felt that they had properly conveyed the meaning of high finance to me, and how the world will fall apart if I failed to meet my commitment, they smiled, shook my hand, and congratulated me. I was now a real bill paying participant in the adult world! Do you remember when it was exciting to have a bill? Now that I look back, I believe that my father had told the Gambles man that he would guarantee payment of the bike if I failed. But he never let me know that. He wanted me to feel the full weight of responsibility of paying for the bike. Yet, Dad could not pay for that bike, so that showed he trusted I would follow through on it. When the early frost came, and the grass quit growing for the season, I planned to find something to do to finish off the bike payment. I rode my bike to Gambles to explain to the man that I might be a few weeks late on the last $12.00, but I would still get it paid. "Your father came in and paid off your debt" I was informed by the Gambles owner. When I saw Dad, I asked him about it, and he muttered, "yeah, I paid it. It's all right son." No complaints, just a smile. I told Dad I would pay him for it, and I believe I eventually did in one way or another, but that was the last I ever heard of it. Now maybe you wonder why a 13 year old boy would have any trouble paying this debt. Was there more concern than necessary that I was able to keep mowing lawns, to pay this debt? Well sure. It is a lot to expect of any 13 year old boy. I see that now that I am a father. But I still believe it is good to learn this at an early age. Many people did seem to worry about me having the ability to do what any normal boy would do my age. And, I had a heck of a time convincing anyone that I did not need to be treated as if I were weak. Most people would laugh at my big ideas, and tell me the things I wanted to do was out of reach. Out of reach?... mowing lawns?...paying off a new bike?....Well, I guess now that I have children I can understand. But back then, I just could not......when I looked at myself I saw a person that could do whatever he decided to do. And my Dad always concurred. My Dad saw me as a young strapping healthy boy that reminded him of himself as a boy selling rhubarb door to door. Dad had a dream once, he did not want me to lose mine. But others......what they saw..... was a small child who had to reach up into the air just to grab the handle of a lawnmower. For you see at the age of 12, I was only 3'11" tall and 55 pounds ........, the smallest child on record at our school. Because of this, most people thought that I was unable to do a lot of things. I never saw myself as small, but advantaged. I believed that since I was so small, I could move faster and quicker, and hide easier than anyone else. Also, I felt that I had a higher energy level since I had less weight to haul around, and this gave me the ability to last longer in activities, than most of the other kids. Click here to go to chapter 2. This article is copyrighted by Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. and no one has permission to copy or reproduce any part without written notarized permission from Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. ©2001,2002,2003 |
© Copyright 2005 Sales Success Magazine, Sales Training, be successful like Bill Gates series.