"Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another." --Napoleon Hill

On one of our summer trips, driving across the prairies and bordering northern states, I met a crazy man. For a few years of my young life, my step father was a mechanic for a demolition derby driver. That's right, I said, "demolition derby". The driver's name was Larry and he went by "The Crazy Canuck". He's not the crazy guy I'm talking about though. I met him later, maybe after the last stop on the carnival tour. More about him in a bit.

So here I am spending my summers with "carnies", developing my hatred for clowns. Just like any normal kid right? But what does any normal kid want to do at a carnival? Go on rides of course. I don't know where the idea came from but I soon found myself picking up trash on the grounds in exchange for free ride tickets. Was it just a job or was I being entrepreneurial by providing a service in exchange for payment? I'm not sure. It was fun for a while, provided I could avoid the clowns, but even thrill rides get boring after a day or two.

It was an experience I'll never forget and it may have shaped my entrepreneurial nature, but what I learned from a guy named "Lefty" made a big difference. Lefty was a mechanic and an old friend of my step-father's. Maybe an old Air Force buddy, maybe someone from his life in Montreal a decade earlier. We stopped by what seemed like a junk yard to me. It might have been a garage, or both. He looked like a stereotypical small town grease monkey in his 40s, but he talked weird. We only stayed long enough to say, "hello, this is the family', and we never saw him again, but the words of wisdom he imparted to me might have changed my future.

"Eat your books!" My step dad wasn't sure I understood what old Lefty was jabbering about, but those three words might have made me autodidactic. A motivated, acquirer of knowledge. At once, student and teacher to myself. Another three word statement that had a similar effect on me was "Feed your head.", from the song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. This was before I was experienced enough to recognize the drug related subtext of the song, or in what later became one of my favorite books ever; Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass.

So hey, eat your books. Be hungry for knowledge and seek it from books and mentors. Feed your head, not only with books but with experiences. Expand your internal model of the world and you'll begin to see how things relate and where things break down. I didn't get that last part until after a lot of head feeding.

It may well have been Lefty's sagely wisdom that compelled me to open up that first computer book and learn. On the other hand it may have been my natural instinct to take things apart. (Sorry about the burning clothes in the dryer Mom. Why would you give a 6 year old a screwdriver anyway?) Whatever it was, it's a clear part of the reason I do what I'm doing now.