Your first job probably taught you more than you realised.

Not the career-starter, but that very first trade of hours for cash - perhaps when you were barely a teenager.

These early experiences are fascinating time capsules. When we examine them closely, unexpected patterns emerge - beyond just showing up on time or dealing with customers.

Here are three of mine:

📰 Newspaper Delivery (age 12-14)

• Wait, plumbers have their own magazine?
• The same news story could be totally different in each paper
• If you timed - and wrote - your Christmas card right, the tips got bigger

💿 Record Store (15-18)

• How to feel less intimidated by the cool twenty-somethings
• Figuring out what someone would be into, before they knew
• Even indie record stores had their own pecking order (aka, status games)

🥖 Supermarket Bakery (15-16)

• Big companies weren't just about 9-5 office jobs
• There were bosses, and there were bosses' bosses
• Reduced price pastries after 8pm = next week's pocket money

Sure, the tricky bit is separating what I actually knew then versus what I'm projecting back from today.

But here's what intrigues me: what if we could help young people recognize the value in what they're already noticing? Not to make them grow up faster, but to appreciate their natural insights.

That 14-year-old who noticed different papers telling the same story differently was onto something important. The teenage baker who spotted opportunity in reduced pastries had glimpsed something fascinating about markets and value.

There's something powerful in helping young people see the value in what they're already noticing - not to accelerate their growth, but to nurture their natural curiosity.

What did you notice in your first job(s) that makes more sense now? Share your story with me, I'd love to hear it.