[bruce511]

I'm not sure I'm mythologizing the past, more I think pointing out that it was different.

I started professionally circa 1990, so that's the era I most remember.

Yes, big organizations had a head-start with computers. My wife went off to work for an insurance company on a mainframe.

My path was different. We built software for small businesses to run on a PC. Ironically I did go door to door at one point to find work.

We settled into our niche though, and gradually expanded our product range. We had salesmen drumming up customers.

Marketing was hard. I traveled a lot, circling the earth multiple times from 1997 to 2011. Lots of in-person meetings, lots of customer relationships.

It took a decade, or two, but we've built something that now employs 50 people, and makes a profit. It's not Google, but it's still satisfying.