Talking to successful businessmen while carrying their golf bags was a privilege. By the time I walked through the doors at Edgewood Valley, one of the nicest and poshest golf clubs in the area, I already had a strong work ethic. As the son of Polish immigrants, I learned early on that I would have to labor for anything I wanted. My mother tells stories about me helping my father put siding on a house when I was still in diapers, so by the time I was twelve, a hard day of work wasn’t a new concept, it was how I spent my hours. But that day at the golf club, when my friend Mark Dygdon said to the golf caddie master, “Let the little kid carry some bags,” something changed. It may have started with lugging around equipment twice my size, but it would end five years later with the opportunity to change my life forever. Lesson 1: Do the Work The first few years as a caddie were fairly straightforward. I wasn’t big enough to carry a huge bag all day, but I did want to show my dedication to the job, so I put in the time. That paid off when I turned fifteen, as now I had the opportunity to step up to a higher level of caddie, one where I worked with the caddie master himself. The promotion not only gave me extra responsibility but also cemented my feelings about hard work. If I put in the hours, I would be rewarded. That, and the pay was nice, too. I carried so many bags that first summer that I earned $3,000, which was enough for me to buy the family a new computer and still have $100 to spare. But while the money was positive, it wasn’t my ultimate goal. Just before my friend Mark Dygdon introduced me to the caddie master a few years earlier, he told me about an even bigger opportunity. If I worked really hard and made the right connections, I could win a four-year college scholarship. It was a nationwide program, so I would have a lot of competition. But Mark was pretty confident in my abilities, and I knew he had my back. Now, I just had to do the work. Lesson 2: Make Connections If I wanted to win the scholarship, I had to meet a few criteria: Have a strong caddie record Maintain excellent grades Show I have a financial need Display outstanding character I was doing well in school for the most part, and I definitely had a financial need. While I did think my character met the criteria, I did have to prove it to all the people I met. It went hand in hand with the strong caddie record component, and I knew it also meant I was going to have a lot of fun. This was a nice and successful golf club, and the members were mostly entrepreneurs or successful businessmen—sometimes both. Talking to them while carrying their bags was a privilege to me. I could learn a lot from their experiences, and I did just that, soaking it all up like a sponge. Making those connections would help me with the scholarship, sure. But it also gave me inside knowledge about what the titans of industry that I caddied for thought when they weren’t working. That alone was priceless. Lesson 3: Follow Through By the time I was seventeen, I had made many friends and contacts at the club. I asked some of the people I caddied with for letters of recommendation, and they came through with amazing results. These men had become my mentors and, in some cases, my friends. I had learned so much from them over the years, and I couldn’t wait to put it all into practice. None of it would have been possible if I hadn’t followed through on those initial goals. I had to start with a plan and then continue down the path relentlessly to achieve my dream. And, sure enough, that’s what happened. I got the scholarship and, with it, a full ride to the University of Colorado at Boulder. I wanted to be an architect and design amazing homes for people, but that wasn’t quite how things panned out. While I did get my degree at CU, it wasn’t in architecture, even though I did end up building homes. But that’s a story for another time. Check out my website or some of my other work. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades