Connect the Dots

Johnson family photo of me, circa 1959

By Mike Johnson

Any good idea brainstorm starts with a list of your skills, talents and interests. This “expertise” is the value you can trade to the world for money.

To mine the deepest, brainstorm the things you most liked as a child. These items burn the brightest into adulthood. You’ll be amazed how the dots connect.

As a kid I loved McDonald’s. As an adult I managed them.

As a kid, I loved convenience stores. As an adult, I ran 7-Elevens.

As a kid I loved candy. As an adult I started a snack box business.

As a kid, I spent my first five years in an 8 X 30 trailer house. As an adult I owned entire trailer parks.

As a kid I loved radio, building my own crystal set. As an adult I was a disc jockey at an oldies station.

As a kid I loved reading and delivering newspapers. As an adult I wrote for newspapers and started my own community newspapers.

As a kid, I loved writing. As an adult I made freelance writing pay enough to support my family.

As a kid on vacation, I fell in love with Wyoming. As an adult I live here.

There are many more connections regarding dogs, wildlife, farms, baseball, RVs, comic books, buses, bicycles, fairs, jeans, board games, comedy, books, treasure hunts and musical instruments.

Connecting the dots is a fun, profitable, enlightening exercise.

It’s amazing how your best talents and deepest interests tie back to childhood desires.

As I look back with 67 years of perspective, it's like I was systematically working a checklist of desires. I wasn't fully conscious of this at the time, but I sure am now.

Clearly, something invisible -- and a bit magical -- was guiding me all those years.

To manifest the double paycheck of income plus joy, I recommend you create a list of things you enjoyed as a child.

It just might lead you home.

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More:

I Beat Childhood

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