When I was 15, I had the dream job

#WhenIwas15, I had the high school job every teenage boy dreams about.

I sold games for Apple computers.

I got a job as a salesman at a store called the Byte Shop. Back then, it was a terrible long shot; why would any company, let alone a computer store, hire someone that wasn't old enough to even get a driver’s license. Computers were complex and, at the time, far too expensive for kids. Luckily, either through apathy or ignorance, I didn't let that deter me.?I knew what I wanted and I was prepared.?Like so many kids, I had a paper route.?But I had also "magically” found opportunities to worked on mainframes and microcomputers.?I had learned BASIC and COBOL and dreamed of owning a computer of my own.?I knew what I was getting into.?After all, this was still just a summer job.

Or at least, so I thought.

Last fall, I had the privilege of interviewing Google VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Dr. Vint Cerf.?Considered one of the “Fathers of the Internet”, Dr. Cerf invented the protocol that makes the internet possible.?In my recorded interview, I asked him what role communication played in the development of the internet, and his response caught me off guard.

It was “absolutely essential” Dr. Cerf exclaimed.?“In fact, one of the lessons that I tried to convey to engineers is that the most important thing they can do is to learn how to sell.”?He continued “it’s kind of interesting because some of the reactions are, oh that’s awful, I would never want to do that. I explain to them that if the sales guys can’t sell what you’ve built then you don’t get paid”.

Did I hear that right??One of the most honored technologists of our time is advising me to learn about sales?

As I started to write a reminder to learn about sales, I remembered that I had learned about sales long ago.

Taking chances

My father drove me to the Byte Shop in downtown Greensboro, NC. I walked in and presented a resume I had printed on a dot matrix to the owner, Bob Terrill, and made my pitch.?He sized me up, looked at my resume, asked me a couple of questions and then, just like that, he said the magic words “Ok, I’ll give you a chance”.

Decades later, those words and the opportunity Bob Terrill gave me, still reverberate to this day.

As the youngest member of an extremely talented academic family, I struggled with dyslexia and hated to read. Measuring up to the rest of the family seemed hopeless until I was introduced to computers.?This was my golden opportunity to get a head start in a burgeoning field; one where I could finally have a place to shine.?For three years, every day during the summer and three days a week during the school year, I would ride my bicycle 15 miles to work, walk to the back of the store and change my street clothes in favor of khaki slacks and an Apple tie.?While my classmates were hearing about computers, I was installing scores of them.?By the time I finished high school, I had already 3 years of experience selling computers and fielding software and hardware support questions.

Giving chances

What I didn’t know then was that Bob Terrill was the brother of Paul Terrill, the man who advised Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to sell a finished product instead of a kit.?I was working in the sister store to the world famous Byte Shop that gave Jobs and Wozniak a chance on a new product that they called the Apple.

While I was hired on to sell computer games, Bob, and his wife Nancy, thought it would help parents see the value in buying their kids a computer if they could hear it from kid instead of a salesman. The chance Bob gave me, afforded me the skills, background and license to get hired to coveted jobs at top institutions at an early age and an opportunity to talk to some of the greatest inventors of our time.?Years later, I got a chance to tell my story in front of my childhood idol, Steve Wozniak himself.

Giving Thanks

I would love to take credit for my accomplishments but I was the beneficiary of the kindness of so many people, institutions and circumstances.?My parents sent me Western Carolina University for a kid’s summer camp where we found a teletype machine left mysteriously unguarded with print outs that lead us to a text based game of Star Trek; catnip for the geek that lies deep within so many of us.?Instead of forcing boring summer programs that taught academic skills, my parents paid for a program at UNC Greensboro to work on PET computers and later, college courses in FORTRAN when I was still in high school.

My parents were mortified at my grades but they didn’t stop me from pursuing my passion even though they couldn’t yet assess its potential.?They allowed me to enroll in a co-ed Boy Scout program called Explorers.?Once a week, the corporate headquarters of Burlington Industries, one of the largest textiles companies in the world, would open their doors, and their data centers, to a group of high school students.?Rita Taylor and other employees would volunteer their evenings to teach us about how to program a mainframe.?Guilford County, through a large grant, opened up a center that taught trade skills to high school students.?Kids from all over the county could learn about auto mechanics and other trades.?I learned about electronics and programming a IBM 370 under the watchful eye of Mr. Coltrane.

Using the gift

Education for the sake of education has little value and, if not applied, is soon forgotten. Guilford Technical Community College hired me, as a high school senior, to program a test simulation of a CNC drilling machine.?Our beloved Grimsley High School basketball coach, Phil Weaver, also gave me the chance to put my skills to work computerizing and analyzing the player’s performance. My talents earn me a varsity letter; not in basketball but in statistics.

This #WhenIwas15 exercise Linkedin proposed gives us all a license to relive the dreams and challenges we faced in our youth and a chance to reflect on the names and faces that helped us along the way.

Looking back at the many people that invested in me, it dawns on me that I forgot to say “thank you”.

To all the teachers, volunteers, entrepreneurs, businessmen, coaches, tradesmen who kept me on the straight and narrow, I don't know what difference you ultimately made in the world, but I know this much, you made a difference to me.

Lost in the work of the moment, I forgot that it was once just a dream.

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