One reason I was interested in computers was that years before I had a part time summer job and sold clothes in the mall. One of my customers was a guy in Houston named Chris Kraft. He worked for NASA and he told me "some day you will have your own computer on your desk!" He was a cool guy, so I always watched for those new computers and when the first microchip machines came out I made sure to hunt them down.
Dad really thought I was nutz when it came to PC's. I had some ideas about how to automate dad's business so I put his client information on a database. He represented a big company that had all dad's data on a mainframe. So I asked them to dump all the data on to mag tape and converted it on a buddy's PRIME supermini. Some other people asked me to do the same thing so I did and then started making some money. Then I started doing bigger things. I remember one day a guy from IBM came by my office. He said he had heard about some of the database things we had been doing and that we needed to buy a $500K IBM RISC machine. "because you can't do anything on those toy machines".
I took him in to a little data center I had made and pointed to a 486 machine that I had built. It had an EISA motherboard and 22 SCSI drives with multiple controllers. I had taken some big cases and welded them together to handle all the drives. I also had paid the kid who ran the air conditioner system in the building to let us tap in to it and we were pushing cold air in to the cases. Using household dryer vent tubing. That's the only way they would run because things got so hot and at a point the machine would lose it's mind. The IBM guy said "what the hell is that thing?" I said that's a computer running a 20 million record database and it costs 90% less than what you want for your machine. He said "you can't do that! It won't work!" I said I wish he would have showed up a couple of months earlier to tell us that because we were too stupid to know we could not do what we had done that he said we couldn't. And have a nice day.
I have a bunch of stories like this. Meeting a guy name Linus online, etc. And along the way people telling me "you can't do that!" So I know how this girl might feel if someone tells her "this is short lived" or some such pablem. She should listen to nobody and just keep creating things THAT PEOPLE WANT. It's a simple business plan.
My dad thought I was crazy because of my love for computers. That was until one week many years ago when I made more money in a week than he did all year. At that point I became someone he was proud of.
Personally, I would not know how to work for someone. I just have never done that. And if tomorrow I was starting all over again for some reason I'd just make something else up to fill a need that people have. Someone always needs a hand with this or that. Just help them out and send them a bill.......
Good for you!
“It’s a simple business plan.”
It sure is. My husband has his own computer repair/networking/sales/systems security...you name it, company and he’s doing great.
I sell books on-line and also raise laying hens for egg sales, along with managing a Garden Center. I’ve recently moved up into management because the guy that worked the job before me finally made enough cash selling goat’s milk to dairies, individuals and cheesemakers to support his family. (Small Ag is all the rage here in the Midwest and you can made an adequate living at it. People LOVE their fresh food!)
There are a zillion ways to make money, and you are 100% correct; provide someone with what they WANT or NEED, solve their problems for them, and they will pay you handsomely. :)