At 12 I found an old lawnmower in the garbage, dra

At 12 I found an old lawnmower in the garbage, dragged it home, put about $25 worth of parts into it (a mag needle, spark plug, and maybe cleaned out the carburetor) and started cutting lawns.

I also rode my bike (which I also found in the garbage and fixed up) along Sunrise Highway, gathered up the hubcaps that had bounced off cars, cleaned them up and sold them on the side of the road during rush hour at like $3 to $5 a pop.

One day I was counting my "earings" at the dining room table, and Dad realized I was making more than he was on a weekly basis (to be fair, I wasn't getting taxes deducted).

LOL....he mentioned I should start paying "rent", so I never counted in front of him again......

When I was 16 I worked for a company for about 3 weeks.....my first "paycheck".....but I made so much more $ on my own that I quit that and never worked for anyone ever again.

Then I raised mice for food for pet stores, programmed computers for a hotel upstate and for a couple of small businesses here on the Island, garbage picked things that I fixed up and sold, and other odd (really odd) jobs.

I opened my first retail store when I was 22, slept on a hammock for the first 5 years of my marriage, then opened a few more stores until I had a small chain of 8 of them.

"Delayed Gratification". I learned very young to play life the same way I played Monopoly. In that game I went around the board buying and investing every dollar I had, and by the end of the game I pretty much owned everything.

Still play it the same way today - life, and Monopoly, that is. $ sitting idle in the bank, in my pocket, or under my mattress makes me edgy - how's that for a twist?

Let's hope that method pays off with USGL....................