Have you ever seen an adding machine – A good old fashion, hand-crank adding machine with paper?
The one that sat on my Mom’s desk was light blue – the ink was black and negative numbers where printed in red – it used a ribbon to print.
That adding machine is my earliest memory or rather, more specifically, sitting under my mom’s desk, looking at that adding machine paper tape and trying to figure out what the black numbers were for and why some of the numbers were red. I am guessing I was probably 4 or 5 years old.
That was over 40 years ago and I still remember it.
I loved sitting under that desk and listening to my Mom – a C.P.A, who specialized in taxes (former IRS agent) and business accounting – talk to her clients about the numbers on that paper tape.
To a little kid like me, those numbers on the adding machine paper were just numbers – some red, some black. To the business owner sitting in that office, those same numbers represented so much more: a way to provide for themselves, their families, their employees, and their customers.
By the time I left home for college, I had heard 100’s and 100’s of conversations in that office – conversations about taxes, the government, business ideas, business successes – you name it, I heard it, I lived it.
I guess some of it sunk in, because by the time I was done with college and had received my MBA, I had already worked with several clients setting up their business or raising money for them to expand their businesses.
I had found my purpose.
Graduating college and my MBA was over 20 years ago and the job I had then, is the job I am still doing right now – Business Consultant and Business Coach.
I have seen unbelievable changes in my career, but one thing is constant: I get to work with the greatest people in the world – small business owners and operators, people that are looking to provide for themselves, their families, their employees, and their customers.
People, probably just like you.