I first learned something about profit when, after graduating from college in 1975, I worked for two years at a nonprofit educational organization, earning a subsistence wage of about $400 per month. Because I was used to being in college and living on the cheap, I thought this was adequate, since it paid for food and gas with a little left over (I had a free room at the time). When financial troubles forced the organization to reduce my wage to $100 per month, I could no longer make ends meet. I quit and, having come from a family of contractors, I turned to doing small repairs for friends, and then for their friends, which is how I got into the construction
