Read All About It: How I got the scoop on business from my paperboy job

We were sitting around the Pike13 offices the other day and somehow got onto the topic of our first jobs.  Mine was as a paperboy for the San Francisco Chronicle. It got me thinking about how important that first job was for me in helping me understand business values and concepts.  And I now realize that I’ve carried these values throughout my career.

Most of you probably don’t even remember the paperboy. They’ve been replaced by adults who drive around in cars and deliver hundreds of papers a day. As a customer, you now pay for your subscription online. You have no idea who is delivering your paper (that’s even if you subscribe to a newspaper these days).  

Back in the day, the local newspaper–in my case the San Francisco Chronicle–would ‘hire’ paperboys (or, less commonly, papergirls). We were typically pre- or early teenagers. I’d get up every morning at 4:15am, collect my papers from the street corner, bring them into my garage, fold them, wrap them if it was raining, load them into my paper sacks, throw the sacks over my shoulders and bike handlebars and set off through my neighborhood and beyond to deliver the morning paper. Every day. At the end of the month, I’d go out in the evening to collect the subscription money from my customers. I would have to pay the Chronicle first for the papers they gave me throughout the month, and then any money I collected in addition to my bill from the Chronicle, I’d keep for myself. Most people paid each month. Some did not.

This isn’t one of those ‘Well, in my day, I had to walk to school barefoot in the snow’ stories. I loved my job. And boy did I learn some essential business and interpersonal values that guide me to this day. Namely:

Self-reliance and commitment

I had to deliver papers literally every day of the year. People relied on the paper being on their doorstep every morning, and if it wasn’t there i’d hear about it. If my family was going on vacation, I’d have to arrange to have a friend do my route while I was away. If I woke up sick, I’d either muscle through it or have my route manager deliver for you, but I’d still have to get up to let him know I was sick.

To be successful in any business, you need to have a ‘stick-to-it-ness.’ Invariably, problems will arise, you’ll lose motivation, you’ll suffer setbacks. But a lot of business success come from perseverance and simply putting one foot in front of the other every day. People rely on what you’re doing–your customers, your employees, your family, your business. If you believe in your business, keep going regardless of the obstacles.

Business fundamentals

All costs of running the route were paid by me. I had to buy the papers, pay for the rubber bands to go around them, pay for the bags to protect them from the rain, and I had to collect money from my customers at the end of each month. After I collected enough money to pay my bill to the Chronicle, I got to keep the rest.

I’d always set a goal every month: the evening I had collected enough to pay the paper and started to make money for myself, I’d buy myself a slice of blueberry pie a la mode as a reward.  Being a paperboy taught me how to budget, account for expenses, save earnings and set goals for my own performance. These skills are still relevant to me as an executive at Pike13.

Pride and respect

As time went on, I developed a strong sense of commitment and pride from what I was doing. Back in the day, the morning newspaper was essential reading for most adults. Customers expected it to be on their front porch every morning. I took great pride in my diligence and reliability.  I loved throwing the paper from my bike and floating it so that it slid onto the porch and stopped just shy of banging into the door, so that customers found it right away upon opening their front door.  I took pride in the savings account I started with the roughly $60 I earned every month.

As importantly, I gained a huge amount of respect for work and the people that do it. As I mentioned, when I collected from my customers at the end of the month, I was on the hook to pay my bills to the newspaper first. If a customer stiffed me by not paying, that money came out of my pocket.  

My greatest pride came from when a customer told me that they appreciated my service. Being a paperboy taught me that all work, no matter how mundane or no matter what the pay, is valuable and appreciated by customers. That respect for the process and the people that provide the service or product has stayed with me today. I hope it is reflected in how I treat our Pike13 customers and those that work with me. Delivering papers taught me that respect is the core component of any business.

Quiet time is important

Getting up at 4:15 every morning sucked sometimes. But I came to love the early mornings–the quiet, hearing the birds chirping, anticipating the weather for the day, smelling the morning air before people began their daily routines. It allowed me to think and dream. I thought about my school work and classes, I thought about going to college, I mentally planned my next backpacking trip, I thought about current events and politics. I’m still an early person and I like to use that time to think about the day ahead and plan for it.  

This quiet time is essential for running a business. Once the day gets started, you are fighting fires, interacting with customers, teaching classes. The day gets away from you. I find that it is critical to take time to settle, reflect, and think about your business. It helps ground you and put things into perspective.

When I think back, it is amazing to me how much of what I learned on that first job are values and habits that have served me well through a long business career. Certainly there are other avenues to finding your business values, but it's too bad that the traditional paper delivery system has fallen by the wayside. What a great classroom.