I sold a website at the age of 13
I love to talk about the days when I was first getting started with the Internet. My very first computer was a Tandy 286 which my parents had purchased from RadioShack in Coquitlam, BC (suburb of Vancouver). I used to have games like Ghostbusters and Police Quest on this thing and it was pretty cool. In fact, I have to give credit for my typing skills to the game Police Quest since every little action in the game required you to type in an action like “open door” or “holster gun”. I loved that Tandy.
Everything really changed for me though when in 1996 my dad took me to Office Depot in Calgary to purchase our first full colour computer, the Compaq Presario. Probably the most significant thing that I experienced with this computer was Compuserve and dial-up Internet. This would forever change my life.
Oh and not to mention cost my father several hundred dollars. For many of you folks who didn’t experience the dial-up world, then you didn’t have to go through the limits of how much time you could spend on the Internet. Cadvision was the local ISP in Calgary and limited you to something like 5 – 10 hours of Internet time per month. Well, apparently I went way over that number and cost my dad about $400 in extra charges. As much as he hated paying the bill I think he did get the feeling that I was onto something at this point.
In 1997 I really started to get involved in HTML and web page design. I was very curious and I would search out on how to make different web pages and such. I spent more time in front of that computer trying to learn new things than I would with any homework or friendships.
After getting pretty good with a few programming languages (Perl/CGI) I started contacting people all over the world to do contract work for them. What was nice about the Internet? Well, nobody knew I was 13 years old. I was as anonymous as you could possibly be and these guys were desperate for web solutions and they didn’t want to pay much for it.
I convinced a small computer store in Texas to pay ole’ little Canadian me $300 to create an online ordering form. You would be able to login to their website and completely customize your computer. I made it easy for them to add new products such as motherboards, network cards and other peripherals. It would then automatically calculate the total cost of the purchase and then calculate shipping based on their zip code.
Yeah I even shake my head when I think about it. Now, the look on my mom’s face when I showed her that cheque was priceless. ”Where the heck did you get that from?” was her response. I think from that day forward my mom and everyone in my family had a good idea that I wasn’t going to be your typical kid growing up nor adult. I wasn’t afraid to ask and to go after things. Those traits are the same things I carry to this day.
I always like to reminisce about my adolescent days since it reminds me a lot about who I was then and who I am now. Although that small Texan computer store is no longer around I can say that I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity that they gave me. I certainly delivered for them and it’s exciting to think back to that as one of my first paying jobs.
