Pre-Career Employment

I was entrepreneurial as a child, and it followed me throughout life. Amazingly, I’ve had a wide variety of jobs in my pre-career life, before I graduated from college. I was never fired, but often switched jobs when I moved, summer ended, or a new school year began. For most of my life, I held multiple jobs at the same time, especially when I had to put myself through college. These job opportunities taught me valuable lessons and skills that helped me later in life. I tried to list the lessons below with the older jobs when I was younger, near the bottom:

• College Dorm Resident Assistant - The Dean saw something in me that I didn't see in myself when he hired me to be an RA in the dorm as a Junior at PUC. It was a lot of responsibility, but I learned to be a friend to the younger students who were homesick, and I had to deal with the ethics of following the rules I was expected to enforce...which was challenging at times because we had a blast in the college dorm. This truly helped me gain confidence that I could be a leader because people could see through my lack of confidence otherwise. Because of my position, I was more easily able to truly help others and even engage in deep spiritual conversations with some students. One of these spiritual conversations occurred a week before a struggling student died in an accident, and the recollection of that conversation was a comfort to his family at his memorial service.
• Security Guard - at the age of 18, I earned a Guard Card for the state of California and used it during my summers to work at a very large, annual 10-day camp meeting event in Soquel, CA, where 10,000 people would attend. I worked summers all the way through college and often came back during my adult life to help out. I earned a side-handle baton certificate and tear gas certificate (before pepper spray was a thing). When I was younger, I think I secretly liked having "authority," and I loved the adrenaline rush during emergencies. As I got older, I grew to enjoy the responsibility of ensuring the attendees were safe and enjoyed the camp meeting, while also having a better strategy for dealing with people who caused problems. I vividly remember an early incident where my sergeant told me, a scrawny eighteen-year-old at that time, to take a big, angry, gang member up to his tent to get his belongings because we were kicking him off the grounds, The sergeant whispered to me, “You can do this. Show no fear and be in charge.” I nearly wet my pants when, as soon as we rounded a corner, out of sight from the security station, the gangbanger stopped, turned to me, and said, “I’m telling ya now mother f*’er, you ain’t gonna take me to my tent ‘cause I ain’t gonna let ya!” I shook in fear on the inside, but mustered up all the will I had to put my hand on my baton, deepen my voice, and say, “Funny. Now let’s just get this done and over with. I’ll tell you what, you hurry up and get your stuff and I’ll make sure they don’t hassle you any further. Let’s go!” Thank God (literally) he didn’t call my bluff. As a security guard, I learned that when you sound like you’re in charge of a situation, most people will assume you are and follow instructions. I also learned how to negotiate to let the other person make a decision that had already made for them before the negotiating started.
• Gymnastics Instructor - While in college, I taught gymnastics for a company that served younger children. I learned how to use my gift of coordination to inspire kids and convince them they can do it. People want to discount their own ability, and giving them the logic of why they are ready and the emotional support to have enough self-confidence to do it, is not easy. It was especially touching to be able to teach Special Olympics gymnasts one summer.
• Firefighter - We were called "firemen" back then. I was a volunteer firefighter at the Deer Park Fire Station, and I carried this monster pager with me while in college. I had an EMT certification and good training for grassfires, auto accidents, and search and rescue in large buildings. I worked a few gruesome accidents, put out a few grassfires, and did a lot of cleanup work after accidents.
• Computer Lab Instructor - This honed my skills at making sure I knew what I was talking about! These labs were very technical, and I had to be on top of my game when students asked all kinds of crazy questions. I also had to be skilled at helping them learn instead of doing the work for them, which could have been easier at times.
• Painter - I was hired by the maintenance department of a hospital that owned dozens of houses nearby. I spent most of a college summer painting houses and a water treatment facility. Besides the fact that I now despise painting because of it, I definitely learned the skill and learned to operate a backhoe tractor. I really grew to hate the work, especially as the weeks went by, but I enjoyed my coworkers. I felt like my life outside of work was merely resting up my sore body for the next workday. I wanted more creativity in my future.
• Alarm System Installer and Electrician Tech Assistant - I worked for a large alarm system company in Napa, CA, that did electrical wiring as well as alarm system installs. I worked in numerous mansions throughout the area, and it was hard work and sometimes a little scary (e.g., I was in a tight crawl space under a house when an earthquake struck the valley, and I thought the house was going to fall off its foundation and kill me). I learned construction skills, wiring techniques, and because I tested the alarm systems (tried to break through them), I figured out how they worked. I wasted a lot of time when I was stuck in the warehouse because after I got it organized, there wasn't much to do other than create innovative mouse traps or continually rearranging how materials were stored. I learned that I didn't want to do manual labor for a career because the people I worked with hated their jobs. That experience gave me a big motivation for finishing my college degree so I could choose work I loved instead of getting stuck doing things I hated in order to get a paycheck.
• Flower Delivery – This temporary job taught me that almost anyone can do something to earn some income on a part-time basis. I helped the florist during my spring break for Mother’s Day, and they helped me pay for groceries. I also learned how to park creatively. Bringing joy into someone’s life was fun, and when people were home, I tried to include little comments like, "Someone must really appreciate you," to help make it extra special.
• Grocery Store Stocker - I worked as a stocker at the Angwin, CA grocery store. I was able to pretend to have OCD as I turned boring stocking into a game, as I made sure my assigned aisle was perfect as far as lining up all the products on the shelves and keeping the stock room well organized. Learning to gamify tasks that were otherwise boring was a helpful skill. I was very poor during college, so I absolutely LOVED that the store would sell me cans of food at a big discount when they were missing labels or had dents. Because I worked with the cans so much, I was good at figuring out what was inside the cans without labels, so my purchases were usually not surprises.
• Home Renovation "Slave" – The guy I worked for during a college summer break was extremely intelligent, very unorthodox, and later got arrested for embezzling people’s money. He philosophically challenged every belief I had, and he would not let me get by without justifying my spiritual beliefs, Intelligent Design, morality, marriage, and more. I learned how to stand up for what I believed through logic and not emotion. Yes, I learned about renovating a century-old building too, but these philosophical arguments helped shape me more than the work.
• Hotel Houseman - I worked nights, so my tasks included taking people's luggage to their room, quickly "turning" (cleaning) a room that was needed outside of regular housekeeping hours, and helping with laundry (washing, drying, folding). Honestly, the thing I learned the most at this job was that movie stars, businessmen, and others did some pretty horrible things when they were away from home. I, unfortunately, saw a LOT of pornographic magazines that were left behind, which was not a proud time in my life. I was treated so horribly by a few movie stars that I was shocked at how entitled they felt they were. I think that really stuck with me because I never wanted to be like that.
• Fast Food Worker - Burger King in Aurora, CO, was my first W2 job, and  4 years later, Wendy's in Napa, CA, was my last fast food job. I was a good worker at both jobs. My very first 2-hour shift at Burger King was spent sweeping the parking lot and trash bin area with a little hand broom and dustpan. I hated it. It was embarrassing because all of the other workers I hadn’t met yet were inside the air-conditioned building, wearing an actual uniform shirt and doing “fun stuff” (which I later learned was pretty boring too), and I’m sure a cute coworker laughed at me through the drive-through window. It turned out to be a way the manager tested new employees because many failed the test and quit their first day because they didn’t like the work. Luckily, I knew I needed the job if I wanted to have any spending money. I learned ways to make extremely repetitive work somewhat fun. I also learned the importance of doing the required work in order to earn a paycheck. I was very responsible and did my work, unlike many coworkers who sloughed off.
• Service Station Gas & Tire Attendant - My father was a mechanic at this gas station, and I often worked there pumping gas and changing/repairing tires. I have no idea how in the world they allowed me to work there as a 17-year-old, but I did, and I'm surprised I still have all my fingers after working that tire machine that would remove rims from tires and do spin balancing, etc. I learned how to be polite to customers who wanted their gas filled or oil topped off. After getting screamed at by a man who had his sports car get gasoline dripped on by me, I learned to be super careful with other people's toys. I also learned auto mechanic skills to maintain my own cars later in life.
• Youth Summer Camp Counselor - I don't recall how I got this job, but as a high schooler, I worked with adults in Aurora, CO, at a summer camp through the parks and recreation department. After work, when they drove us from the camps back to the rec center, I'd often hang out at the rec center and play pool with various people. I used to be good at it with a natural ability to make some skilled shots. I wish I could play like that now, but I can't.
• Philatelic Collection Breakdown Specialist - My first job outside of mowing lawns was working for a stamp auction house. I got the job because my teacher at school recommended me to the owner. I knew how to grade postage stamps and would help break down collections and classify each stamp for the auctions they'd hold. Instead of paying me money, they'd let me choose a few stamps to take home. I thought this was strange since I knew their value and often chose the most expensive ones. As a youngster, this was kinda cool.
• Babysitting (more like younger child sitting, sometimes spoiled brat parole officering). Definitely helped me learn responsibility, negotiating, talking at the level of the client, empathy, and patience.
• Lawn Mowing - Because my father was often "on tour" in the military, I had to learn how to be the man at home and mow the lawn, fix my siblings' bicycles, etc. When I was very young, I started mowing our lawn and somehow started selling my service to neighbors who would pay $2 to get their lawn mowed. Mom would take me to the gas station where I could fill a gallon gas can to take with me for my lawn mowing business. When I wanted to buy something, I learned to work for it. I learned to trade my work for pay, and the more I wanted to buy something, the harder I'd work for it.