24 Jobs and 24 Lessons Learned

About a week ago I watched “Thank you for Smoking.” First off, it is a great flick and highly recommended to anyone looking to work on confidence, perfect sales pitches or just work on their one liners. One of the themes of the movie is that Aaron Eckhart’s character (a tobacco lobbyist), “does it for the mortgage.”
This got me thinking about the 24 jobs I have had in my life (yes, 24!) and what I’ve endured “to pay the mortgage.” Enjoy.

24 Jobs

Dairy Queen – First job, I was 15. Riding one’s bike 10 miles roundtrip in 115 degree heat is not a good time.

Sam’s Ice Cream – Using my ice cream experience, I became store manager. At 16 years of age, I was making almost $20,000/year. It would be another ten years before I made that much again. Did I save any of that money? No, I blew it all on hip clothes like Aeropostale and Abercrombie & Fitch. Uggghh.

Ann Taylor – Stock boy. Women’s retail. Need I say more?

McDonald’s – Stop laughing. Apparently at the Mickey D’s they like you to “take a break before it gets busy.” “But my shift just started and then I’ll have another 8 straight hours of work.” “So?” So, I went on break. And never returned.

Coffee Plantation – A coffee store located at the Business College of Arizona State University. The three C’s of life: coffee, college and co-eds. I was foolish to ever leave.

Macayo’s (Mexican Food Chain in Arizona) – This was a Mexican cantina near ASU. College and co-eds, were you paying attention?

Tequilas – Sometimes restaurants are there one day and gone the next. Literally. I showed up to work the next day and all the windows were boarded shut.

Padres – Mexican.

Arribas – Food.

Mi Amigos – Good.