So, before I begin sharing anything about my experiences, skills, principles, values, etc., I thought I start by going to much earlier in my life — like when I was just a kid, maybe 4 or 5 years old.
My Dad was a big fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers who, a few years earlier, had moved from Brooklyn, New York to LA. So, when I came along, he naturally introduced me to baseball. Since he was an enlisted sailor in the U.S. Navy assigned to the Pacific Fleet, we lived in California for several years while I was growing up. When I was probably 4 or 5, while he was stationed at the Alameda Naval Air Station in Oakland, my Dad took my Mom and me to Candlestick Park in San Francisco to see the Giants play the Dodgers. I remember very little about the experience except that I did get to carry my glove just in case a foul ball came our way. The rest mostly from my Mom sharing her memories, but the experience stuck with me.
Well, that experience certainly implanted on my brain as I began dreaming of being a professional baseball player and told my parents so. I guess they believed me, or at least they didn’t discourage me. I did get to begin playing organized baseball in Little League when I turned 9. Since my birthday is in September, I had to wait from my 9th birthday in September to the following May to play. I had classmates lucky enough to have been born earlier in the year who did get to play. That was torture for a 9 year old to have to deal with and endure. It just made me even more convinced that I wanted to play pro ball. So, I continued to play sandlot ball with other neighborhood kids, enjoying every minute of it.
I was a pretty good student in school but I held tightly to the dream of being a pro baseball player. I became a diehard fan of the Big Red Machine, the Cincinnati Reds dynasty of the early to mid-1970s. I continued playing organized baseball and made a few all-star teams. I even got to start at pitcher and first base playing on my high school team. But, alas, the pro scouts didn’t come calling.
I even tried out for the Cincinnati Reds but wasn’t fleet of foot enough — I couldn’t run fast enough, nor did my 75 – 80 mile per hour fastball scare or overwhelm anyone. So, I had to ultimately realize and accept that I wasn’t going to be the next Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, or Pete Rose. Therefore, I needed to begin trying to figure out what I was going to do, what I wanted to study in college, and what kind of career I wanted. So, around my senior year in high school, I began trying to adjust.
This began some introspection about who I was and who I wanted to be. I’ve always wanted to do things that helped others in some fashion. So, ultimately, I settled on studying Criminal Justice as a path to being a lawyer to provide help to people when they found themselves on the wrong side of the law. But, after 4 additional years of study, I just couldn’t go again in the next fall so, after graduation from college, I “hit the pavement” and found a job as an Assistant Manager at a convenience store. I learned a lot about responsibility (opening and closing a store, preparing bank deposits, supervising clerks, etc.) as well as serving customers, inventory management, stocking, all that goes into running a store.
I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do long-term for a career so I kept my eyes open for opportunities related to what I had studied, and, no, I didn’t want to be a beat cop, but thought there were many opportunities related to the Criminal Justice system that offered great career potential. Lo and behold, as a result of some very serendipitous circumstances, an opportunity presented itself to be a Juvenile Court Officer and Administrator. Wow! I thought, I am going to change the world, fix broken kids, mend families, and who knows what else. After 3 years, I came to realize that reality was much more brutal than what I had imagined things to be. Hundreds of kids came through the Juvenile Court, most just cut-ups who had gotten into mischief and not real criminals, but a few, a small few, had become hardened, scary even. And, on top of it all, on my meager salary, I couldn’t really afford to support the family that, by then, I had started — having gotten married and having our first child.
With my spirit dampened and with all the resolve I could muster, I went back to school and picked another path — computer science, which turned out to a Godsend for me. It turned out to be the career I was striving for. “How?”, you say. Because I got to work for a company that was a burgeoning retailer that subsequently became the world’s largest auto parts retail / commercial company. That company’s mission was to help those individuals who couldn’t afford to pay a professional mechanic to repair their automobile — in other words, help those people who purchased products from us and did the repair work themselves out of economic necessity — a real do-it-yourselfer (DIYer). I was also able have a professional career and accomplish the goal of helping others. That made me proud then and still does to this day to have been a part of that organization.
To find out more of this story, see the About Me page to explain how I got to the point I am today.
The long, circuitous route I took to get to the point I am now — a business owner/entrepreneur and a budding blogger and YouTuber — wasn’t planned out, wasn’t engineered ahead of time. I think it was the kind of journey that many people take — one of dreams and abandoned dreams, new ideas, stumbles, open doors, decisions, actions and inactions, goals, and outcomes.
Certainly, some people may identify with my path. What I want to do is try to distill some of the steps, processes, decisions, mistakes, accomplishments, and re-directions that I experienced so that some may get a little affirmation that they’re not the only one with this type of path and to take heart that it can be a rewarding and fulfilling journey. And, maybe even more impactfully, I can share these thoughts, experiences, and actions as well as a little advice along the way with those in the early stages of their professional lives. Everyone can benefit from some encouragement — maybe that what’s I can do for you!
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