I was ten years old when I started discovering how much I enjoyed spotting an opportunity.

In the early 1960s, returnable bottles had value. Younger children around town could collect them, but many could not take them to the store themselves. I started buying their bottles for a cent each, taking them to the store, and keeping the difference.

Before long, I had children collecting while I waited for them to bring the bottles back.

Then I pushed the idea too far.

I noticed returned bottles stored behind the store and came up with a scheme to take them and return them again. Eventually, the store caught on and that little enterprise ended.

I did not stop looking for ways to earn money.

I used my savings to buy a power mower and began taking lawn jobs. Later, I even charged smaller children a dollar a week to walk them to and from school and keep bullies away.

Not everything I did was right, and I can see that much more clearly today. But those years revealed something about me early: when one opportunity disappeared, I immediately began searching for another.

That ability would help me tremendously in business later.

It would also require something I had not yet learned, knowing when ability needed boundaries.