"Everything that exists is, in a manner, the seed of that which will be." --Marcus Aurelius

"From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow." --Aeschylus

In 1983 I was 8 years old. I lived in a very tiny town with my mother, my younger sister and my step father. I remember two strong interests from that time that have stayed with me; Bruce Lee, and Computers.

With Bruce Lee, I wasn't just a kid who jumped around pretending to be a kung fu master. I started learning martial arts at the only place available in my town, the local Shotokan Karate Club. It was a small group that met in a local hall a few times per week, but in my mind, I trained in an ancient temple with enlightened warriors.

I was into the philosophy and discipline of it. The art, culture and the personal journey of martial art training was fascinating. Of course I watched every kung fu movie I could find and later read books on the art and culture of where these styles came from. I think it has served me well through difficult times.

As for Computers, it was 1983, who the hell knew what a computer was? Ok, the first Apple computer came out in 1976, Microsoft made the deal of the century in 1980 and the first Mac came out in 1984. Really though, how many people had a personal computer in '83?

My grandparents on my step dad's side sent us a T/S 1000. It ran on the "BASIC" computer language and came with a book and a few programs on cassette tapes. I promptly sat down and took the programs apart. Read the book and started programming in BASIC. I Repeated the process with the Commodore 64C a couple of years later and I've been the "goto" guy for computer related stuff ever since.

I never thought to make a career of it. It's just something I knew. It was a part of me like breathing. I'd have never thought to make a career out of breathing. It's too bad, I could have been a millionaire a few times over, given the explosion of tech in the following decades.

Unfortunately the entrepreneur neurons (entrepreneurons), :) in my brain hadn't been formed yet. Which brings me to that moment I alluded to.

One day in the summer I asked my step dad if we could go fishing. I followed him outside to the car as he answered.

He said we couldn't go fishing because he had to go to work. The rest of the conversation went something like, "Why?"

"To make money."
"What if you don't go?"
"The boss will fire me."
"What does the boss do?"
"He tells the rest of us what to do."

At that moment, as I watched him pull out of the driveway, I came to a conclusion. It's better to be the boss.

I immediately forgot this lesson, at least consciously, and went on being a kid. Throughout the rest of my life I never referred to it when thinking about what to do with my life. But knowing what I know now, I can see how it influenced my choices and behaviour.

Given the environment I was going to enter later in my life, those choices were going to make my life hard.