Why I Became An Entrepreneur - Part II

The answer was a resounding "No!" I watched my father sit in his den besides the phone (before the days of call waiting) and wait for the phone to ring, from the literally hundreds of people that he had called or written in hopes of finding another job. Many of these communications went to those who actually owed my father for their own current positions...yet they never called. Every day that I returned from school, I'd go into the den to greet my dad and he'd seem to grow sadder and smaller each day that no call for an interview came. I was the oldest, so the realization of what was happening to my loving father hit me the hardest.
The helplessness of watching my poor dad each day was burning itself into my very soul to never be in the position of depending upon others for my livelihood. I didn't realize it then but the experience of seeing my father suffer indelibly changed my perception of how I was going to earn my living and support my future family. There was NO way I was ever going to work for someone else...NOT EVER!
Losing a big account and having to "fall on his sword" like he did had never happened to my father before and as time wore on and the calls for interviews were never returned by his so-called friends, my father's sprit became broken. Finally, Dad received a call from someone that he had worked alongside for years and had actually been responsible for this man's position as the head of a prominent ad agency. His interview was scheduled for a morning a week hence and Dad was excited beyond belief. As the time approached for his meeting, my dad's old exuberance and optimism returned and as a family, we all prayed for his successful interview and hoped-for hiring.
As sometimes things are destined to happen, Dad's train was late and despite leaving hours before his scheduled appointment, he arrived 10 minutes late. In one of the cruelest acts I had ever seen, the so-called former colleague and friend of my father's refused to see him and hours later, our family received our fallen father. It was devastating to us all and almost four decades later...my anger boils over with the callous treatment my dear father suffered at the hands of this pompous ass.
Eventually, my dad found work, at a much smaller and less prestigious shop than he was used to but he did find work. The salary was far less than he was formerly receiving and the owner of the firm was a bombastic megalomaniac, who seemed to take great pleasure in humbling my once proud father. I seethed every day my father was preparing to go to work as his nerves actually caused him to retch each morning. He tried to hide it from me but I knew. He was going to a job he hated simply because he was the family's provider and he thought he had to do that because he knew nothing different.
Well, I did know differently and after leaving home at 17 to enlist in the Army, I found myself given an Appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, with a stop at their prep school at Ft. Monmouth. From there, I won an ROTC Scholarship at the University of Virginia, where I took a 4th year elective called "Entrepreneurship" in the McIntire School of Commerce and the rest, as they say, is history.
I took that semester's business plan, renting mopeds at U.S resorts, opened up a shop at our summer vacation spot of Nantucket Island and made enough money to know I didn't need a college degree to earn a living. I gave back the remainder of my scholarship to the Alternate, as I had done with my West Point Appointment before and I threw my hat into the proverbial "entrepreneurial ring."
One of the proudest days of my life was in 1979, when after two years of startling success and growth, I was able to offer my own father a position at running the finances of my own company and forever leave the corporate world, which had done him no favors. Dad "retired" to join his eldest son in my first official company and it is just dawned on me that this happened at the same age that I am now...54!
I kept that pledge to myself, made at 15 years old and have never relied on another person or company to provide for my living. I will live and die the entrepreneur that I was forged to be.
Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder