My humble beginnings

In my early 20s, I used to write down my thoughts in a journal everyday to pass by time as I hitched a ride with my dad first thing in the morning at six.  My work didn't start till 9am, so I'd wait for him till he finish his morning route from the suburbs of Vancouver to Downtown.  My days were long, it was my first job and I worked hard yet I wasn't rewarded in pay.  Making $10 per hour is poverty line, yet I felt lucky "at that time" to be given a chance to work in an office setting for a college drop out.  For the next three years, I didn't get any pay increase and I never asked which hindered my accumulation of wealth on a faster scale.  Each year, I'd get a bonus of maybe $500 and I thought I was happy with that.  

What triggered me to make a change?  My controller asked me to seal the envelope to the bonuses of the employees on the payroll, she was too lazy to do it herself.  I was curious as to what kind of bonus others were getting, so I peeked.  To my dismay, a store manager's bonus exceeded my yearly salary.  I worked so hard day in and day out, yet they did not reward me.  That's when I decided to call it quits.  I even gave myself a deadline.

Working 9am-5pm didn't give me many chances to go on work interviews.  But I managed to snag an interview that's an hour drive away and told them I had to leave early for work that day.  They asked, "What was I doing?"  I just told them it's a personal matter.  Luck was on my side, I got offered the position at $23k per year and I accepted.

I gave in my resignation and my two weeks notice, still I was emotional.  They accepted it and started interviewing candidates.  My replacement started soon after before I was to leave.  She only worked a couple days before quitting.  So now, they had no one to replace me and pulled me aside offering to match what I was getting at the other position.  I lied and told them $25k and they were willing to match it (they knew they were underpaying me all these years), but I declined and decided to move on to the new company.

That decision proved to be right move as I've managed to gain yearly raises there after.  From there, I haven't really put my thoughts down on paper on each passing day.  Most are private to share.  Point of this little tidbit on my humble beginnings is that I should start documenting my progress in my stock portfolio, what trades I may make, my thoughts of the trade or it'll just become a distant memory.