My first consulting clients, and their shock that I was a 4th grader.

When I was in 4th grade I advertised "computer tune ups" doing cache clearing, temp file removal, folder cleanup, AV scans, (and then set the mouse 15% faster) for $30 in my local paper, humbly referring to myself as the Chief Computer Doctor at Hampton's Computer Doctor.

To my surprise, a few days later a couple in their late 60s called me and summoned my services.

My Grandfather, to whom I credit most of my early success for this next reason, drove me to what felt like every backwoods house in my hometown over those 5-6 years before I could drive.

After his own 10 hour physically draining blue collar work days, he would often pick me up at home, drive me to a local customer, and read the newspaper in his truck while I walked up to the front door as if any of this was normal, shook my customers hands, handed over a freshly printed business card, and quickly got to work after hearing an encouraging "Good luck, Mikey!" from the old black Chevy behind me.

Yes, they were as surprised as you'd expect them to be. Often times I found my aggressive price point was enough to sway anyone from spending 4x as much at staples or best buy. People rolled the dice with me every time, I was never turned away. Often times people told me to raise my prices or would happily tip 2-3x the amount, but I was happy to be connecting people to technology instead of letting it scare them or intimidate them.

Some of these seniors went on to become relatively technology literate over my tenure with them, and when COVID hit I left voicemails to ask if they were OK and most of them texted or emailed back that technology was the least of their worries. They have their iPads and iPhones, and PC, and familiar enough to pay bills and communicate with family online.

Hearing the joy in their voices of being able to see their children, grandkids, or friends while isolated at home during COVID made all of the cheap child labor I put out over those years worth it.

It's important to point out though – it was my Grandfathers motivating support and encouragement in myself and my own abilities that made this all achievable at such an early age. I'd tell him I didn't feel like it some days or I was nervous to go to a customers since I didn't know how to figure something out yet.

He encouraged me to show up, keep going, push harder, learn more, and often times lead me to the solutions I needed despite not having any background or literacy with technology, basically acting as the worlds kindest-hearted rubber duck. To be fair, he got me back as he was verbally (very colorfully) diagnosing his several Harley Davidsons over the years and is why I have a weird combination of advanced technical and foundational 2cyl mechanical knowledge.

He offered advice surrounding the duality of having confidence to tread in unsteady water with what knowledge you do have but without the hubris that often follows that.