Every once-in-a-while, you may come across someone that truly inspires. That sets an example for others to follow. That bulldozes through barriers, paving the way for others to follow in their footsteps.
For many, that could be their favorite sports hero growing up. For others, a historic figure that did something incredible. Or an inventor or business leader that ushers in a new technology.
But, I consider myself lucky. Because it’s not just every so often I find this person. It’s not just someone who appears in a specific period in my life.
For me, that person happens to be my father. Who I’m thankful for every day.
Longtime readers of Strategic Trader may know a bit about my background.
My path to becoming an investor and speculator wasn’t straightforward.
I grew up in a family of contractors. I remember going to the office with my dad as a 6-year old. My job at that age was making coffee. But after that, I’d have the run of the office and shop. I was free to explore.
I handled tools. I rode on machines. It was my playground.
It probably wasn’t the best environment for a 6-year old boy to run around. But it was a dream world.
Now, for the most part, I had a typical childhood. I was constantly outside, running, jumping, riding my bike with the neighborhood kids.
But there was one thing that was very different. I didn’t grow up playing catch in the yard with my dad like so many other boys my age. It’s not that we didn’t want to. We couldn’t.
That’s because my dad is blind. Slowly losing his eyesight since his childhood.
He knew as a kid he would go blind. But that fact never stopped him. Never limited him to what he could achieve.
Life Lessons
While I never had the typical experience most boys and their fathers have, there were other things I could do with my dad. And it just so happened that reading was one of those things.
Some days it was some sort of construction journal. Other days it was just going through the mail. Still others were reading about the markets.
How many eight-year-olds do you know of that would open up the business section of the newspaper and scan through the stock tables?
That was my weekends in a nutshell. That and going through Bob Brinker’s Marketimer newsletter. My first crash course in the investing world.
As I grew, working at the office changed from making coffee to doing real manual labor. Like working in 100-degree heat in the middle of summer on a construction site making minimum wage.
All the while, I got a front-row seat to my dad’s approach to life and business. To how he dealt with good times or bad. Or charged ahead in the face of setbacks. Like a potential banking partner who, after meeting him for the first time, told him that “Blind people don’t build buildings.”
Yet he took it in stride, showed the banker the door, and went on to build award winning buildings like the one pictured below:
Or doing specialty work in the steel mills in Northwest Indiana that only a handful of contractors would even dare touch.
Well Deserved
Despite my path diverging from the construction business to writing Strategic Trader today, I realize more every day how profound an impact all of these experiences with my dad had on my life.
How they all shaped who I am. And continue to do so even to this day.
Recently, my dad received a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement award from the Indiana Small Business Development Center. When he learned about it, his first reaction was, “Really? Are you sure? Why me?”
It wasn’t his goal to receive awards when he started in the construction business. But it’s a testament to his drive and leadership that he did. To his never giving up. To removing the word “can’t” from his vocabulary despite his physical handicap.
And to showing countless people that there are no limitations to achieving things no matter the circumstances.
So thank you, dad, for being an inspiration. For being an example. And for being there through life’s ups-and-downs.
You may not be able to see, but you’ve done more than you know to show me the way.
Regards,
Editor, Strategic Trader