Seventh Son: My Road To Success by Jim Scott

 I was eight and had developed no thoughts around money other than there was never any extra. I also knew Thursdays were paydays, and for that day there was a lot of food in the house. Every other penny went to buy clothes and anything else we might need.  Not many dollar bills slipped into the cash pouch of my father's wallet and stayed there, and if there were any, they'd already been proactively claimed for future use. Nobody had spare money except, it seemed, Alphonsus Keefe. A business owner..... I knew, even at such a young age, that this was something worth striving for.

Seventh Son: My Road to Success is the memoir of self-made millionaire and successful entrepreneur Jim Scott. Born into a working class blended family of 12 children in the Central Newfoundland town of Windsor, life was rough for the seventh son of a paper mill worker and his hard-working bride. But as luck should have it, the Celtic fable of good luck and prosperity that is often bestowed upon a seventh son proved true. This memoir is an autobiographical series of snapshots demonstrating how one ordinary man turned misfortune to fortune, while staying true to his humble beginnings and family values. 

At the age of 16, on the heels of his father's death, the carefree days of boyhood were over. The agony of grief was tremendous and not having a father to assist with navigating the hurdles of being a teenager were tough. Thrust unwillingly into manhood and failing school, Scott left with Grade 8 education to help support the family. Like so many other Newfoundlanders, Scott tried studying at the college but ended up leaving the province and working menial jobs. Eventually he found success as a millwright and secured work with IOC in Labrador City. As is common in the trades industry, Scott was no stranger to a litany of layoffs and found himself travelling to find work. Over the years he worked on the Hibernia and Terra Nova Offshore Oil projects and travelled to the US to work on the Big Dig Project. Eventually, Scott's vast experience as a tradesman and savvy business acumen resulted in his decision to establish his own project and construction management firm at the age of forty four. Standard Consulting Inc. was born and lived for nine years as a multi million dollar operation until it was sold to a national engineering firm. Jim Scott was fifty-three.

Seventh Son: My Road to Success truly portrays the arduous journey to success and offers hope to those on a similar path. There are many turning points in the memoir as the author writes with truth and purpose, inviting the reader to walk in his shoes. At times it was overly detailed and I found myself skipping over some of the technical writing relating to his business affairs however, many people will easily relate to Scott's early experiences (childhood shenanigans, first romances, death and divorce) and will come to appreciate the lessons gleaned from his life that supported his success. Seventh Son: My Road to Success by Jim Scott is a Flanker Press publication.