My First Job: Lorraine Howell, owner of Media Skills Training

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July 24, 2005

My First Job: Lorraine Howell, owner of Media Skills Training

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Lorraine Howell

Current position: Owner of Media Skills Training in Seattle, a company that helps business owners, CEOs and management teams improve their performance during interviews, speeches and presentations.

First job: Checker at my dad's grocery store, the Saratoga Market (in Saratoga, Calif.), 1960-64.

Pay: 50 cents an hour, way below minimum wage. However, I did live rent-free.

How I got the job: Good old-fashioned nepotism. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs, and we were expected to learn the family business. Also, my dad was trying to build a business, and my teenage siblings and I were cheap labor.

What I learned: How to get along with and take care of a wide variety of customer personalities — a skill that is critical in my line of work today. Success is hard work. With a parent as a boss, I was expected to work harder than the other employees. Years later, I am still influenced by my father's entrepreneurial spirit. In 1998, I took my knowledge of the television industry and launched my own business

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