GROWING UP AN INSPIRED SELF-STARTER

I grew up in a family-owned business.  Multiple businesses, in fact.  My parents bought a small-town (I mean, small – 1,700 people) hardware store in 1969.  I was born a year later. I’m sure I spent every day of my childhood in that store. Eventually, they went on to buy two more stores in that same downtown “main street” area.  My uncle even had an appliance store across the street. So, this lifestyle, this entrepreneurial sprit, is in my DNA.

From the time I could count to 10, I was working at that hardware store.  If you could count, you could help with inventory.  Count out ten nails, put them in a pile.  Count out 10 more, put them in a pile.  And so on…there were a lot of nails.  As soon as I could see over the counter, I was ringing up sales and counting change.  That’s right – WAY before computers did all that for us.  You had to ring up the item with the correct price, the sales tax and then total it.  You had to take the money (very few credit cards) and count back the change.  I think that’s a lost art.

Both sets of grandparents helped at the store.  It’s one of my fondest memories.  Seeing my grandpa sitting on a stool at the front door handing out pennies to kids for the gumball machine, my other grandpa in the backroom creating some piece of equipment that would help us display the extraordinary plants and garden flowers we presented for sale on the sidewalk outside the store every Spring and Summer.

On Saturdays, the hardware store is the place where local farmers and “old-timers” would gather around free coffee (and sometimes donuts) and trade stories.  As kids, we worked at the store every Saturday.  Most mornings we went there to help before going to school.  I remember my classmates passing by on their way and honking and waving. That’s when we knew it was time to go.

My parents worked tirelessly.  My mom ran the operation of the stores.  She was there every day...running across the street between stores to ensure things were running smoothly...dealing with vendors and suppliers...and making sure customers got what they needed.  She did this while my dad worked as a traveling hardware salesman.  He’d come home from the “road” and spend the night placing orders and reconciling the accounts.  It was not an easy life.  They borrowed from Peter to pay Paul and make sure there was food on the table every night, that their four kids had what they needed, and still managed to make life fun for us at the same time.

I can’t overstate how growing up this way impacted me as an adult.  That upbringing taught me things that are indelibly embedded in who I am today.  The value of hard work, of honest work, of serving others.  To be a self-starter.  The importance of family and faith.  I’d bet most “mom n’ pop” businesses share those same ethics.  There is no way to stay in business without them.