My early Days as an entrepreneur...

I became an entrepreneur early in my life. While in college, in Pittsburgh, I was driving by a cemetery and noticed a large pond with what appeared to be hundreds of goldfish in it. I drove into the cemetery and was standing by the pond when the grounds-keeper came over to say hello. I asked him how all of the goldfish found their way into the pond. He shook his head in dismay and said the darn kids get sick of them at home and dump them here. I inquired if it would be okay if I took some. He said, "Take them all - they are a nuisance". I promptly went to the store, purchased some garbage bags, a large net and a loaf of bread and returned. The grounds-keeper was so enthralled by what I was doing that he actually helped. I ended up with well over 200 large goldfish - which I promptly sold to the local aquarium shops. 

I then noticed that the plants that were sold at the aquarium shops were the exact type that was growing in the pond. I returned a week later to the cemetery and found the grounds-keeper. I inquired about the plants. He laughed and said, "You really want to pick the weeds out of the pond?" I said "Sure!" I filled several garbage bags full of the "weeds", took them home, cleaned them and wrapped them into small bunches and tied them together with rubber bands. I sold each bunch for 49 cents - I had hundreds of sprigs and sold out quickly. There were enough plants at the cemetery for several trips over several months. The main plant life in the pond was lily pads and flowers. They were truly beautiful and were being choked out by these "weeds". 

One last find... I noticed an area on the side of the road where the hillside had been blasted to make room for the road had some interesting looking rocks. I stopped to inspect them and found that they were green shale. They would look terrific in an aquarium. I loaded up my car with as many rocks as the car would hold and went around selling them (for months) to the local aquarium shops. They would actually put in orders for the rock delivery! So, those were my first ventures into capitalism and I had a ball!