I have always encouraged people to find out what they do well and enjoy doing. The most successful people do what they love. My natural talents were musical and that was just fun. I worked as a musician from age 14 to age 32. My career interests in industrial management began at age 10 and I worked in Personnel from age 23 to age 49 and ran my own consulting practice from age 50 to age 74. When I was 67, I started to share my experiences and insights on this blog. As a Tea Party Leader, I watch how you vote and believe many of you need to know more about economics and history. I also share my own experiences to witness our economic history. I share my employee development insights to help you know more about yourself and discover God’s Plan for you. God has a plan for you and you’re not going to like it, if you fail to figure out what the Plan is.
I prayed for wisdom and was curious how things worked. I started early doing chores. When I was age 8, I got to do chores like cut the grass, rake the leaves, sweep the garage and pick up peaches from the back yard. Later at age 10, I got to replace sidewalks and paint storm windows and houses. I wanted to learn how things were made and maintained. My interest in home maintenance paid off later when I bought a house. It was one more thing I was good at and enjoyed.
When I was 23, I owned my own house in St. Charles County Mo., It needed work. I got to learn more construction related tasks like pouring a concrete patio, a bi-pass driveway, installing a culvert, replacing copper pipe, installing a central air unit and expanding a leach field for a septic tank. My brother lived next door. He was an electrician who knew construction and he helped me learn how to do these things.
When we moved to Salina Kansas at age 32, The house didn’t need work. I added insulation to the attack, built a sandstone wall around a creek and repainted the house.
When we moved to Atlanta Georgia at age 39, The house needed work. I added picture molding in the dining room, replaced chandeliers, replaced faucets and door threshold plates, built a fireplace mantle, redesigned the basement duct system and raised the ceiling, removed old dark wood paneling, built brick patios with French drains and 13 tons of granite sand, rescreened the porch, I painted the house every 5 years.
Over 40 years, we hired Contractors to do the tree removal, roof replacement, HVAC replacement, Water heater replacement, sprinkler system install, drywall, electrical, plumbing, refacing all built-in cabinets in light cherry, installing a Sub Zero, installing an oak floor in the kitchen, sanding and refinishing the wood floors in light oak, replacing and installing stair railings, replace the exterior siding, reinforce the back porch and painted the siding and the porch. We paid $55,000 as a down payment. We invested about $100.000 in improvements. We paid $16,800 per year on the mortgage for 17 years totaling $285,600. We have $440,600 in the house and are sitting on a profit of $309,400. We bought the house in Atlanta for $137,000, now it’s worth $750,000. We paid off our mortgage in 2000. We proved again that home ownership is free and we will never have to pay rent.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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