My First Job

"I worked two jobs when i was 12; i delivered the Star Ledger newspaper in the morning before school, and the Newark, New Jersey Evening News after school. I delivered around my local neighborhood-about a mile and a half.

"I don't recall anybody else at that time having two paper routes; my mother wasn't thrilled-she thought it might have been overkill that I was spending most of my school years working.

"Back in those days, the delivery boy was responsible for collecting the money. Every Friday evening, I went to both newspapers' customers and collected the money right after work when people got home. Then, on Saturday mornings, I went to the circulation managers at the papers and paid them, and they paid me back the overage. I made maybe 15 dollars a week doing that-a lot of money back then.

"When you're 12 and have to get up at 5 a.m. every morning, you learn to discipline yourself. I guess it was a good boot camp. People take their papers very seriously-I learned discipline and responsibility from that job. Perhaps the most important lesson, though, was from collecting the money. That's where I learned the most in dealing with people and different personality types. I had to sell myself to the customers so they would like and trust me and tip me well.

"A lot of things have changed with technology. But the things that haven't changed-service and salesmanship-were important back in the '60s and are important today in 2005. That's the thing I walked away with at an early age-the importance of customer service and good salesmanship."

-Interviewed by Katie S. Betz