I GREW up in Del Mar, Calif., north of San Diego. I got my first job the summer after eighth grade at a small Internet service provider. I called the owner, Christopher Alan, one day and asked if he had a summer internship or a job, and he took a chance on me. My mother would drive me to the train, and I’d take along my skateboard to go from the San Diego train station to the office.
Reading stuff like this is so surreal because it nearly mirrors my own experience starting out. I got my first job through a local linux users group mailing list (CEO took a chance on me to do sysadmin and scripting work) - my mom had to drive me to work after school and pick me up in the middle of the night after I was done.
Now I run a business and when I look back, it's astonishing how large a chance it really is to hire a kid who can't even drive to write software for your business. The 1990s truly were crazy.