Job #1: High School, Building fences, shoveling stuff

In the mid 70's, Bristol Meyers fired a bunch of scientists.  My father, a research toxicologist in his late 30's was not one of them, but lost some colleges that he considered talented; seeing that exemplary performance was no guarantee of continuous employment, he started a research toxicology business in 1976. I was a freshman in high school and in 1977 he purchased his first computer.  By 1979, I learned to program it in Fortran III and pdp-11 assembler.  He found that he could do toxicology four times more cost effectively using a direct computer interface than his competitors could with manual procedures.  That was my first job; I worked for "the man", literally.  

My inspiration was my dad's work ethic - failure was not an option in his mind.  My hobby was electronics projects and math - I enjoyed spending hours trying to simplify a big formula and/or make a mathematical model.  I liked the idea of mission/vision/purpose; though I didn't know how to create it.