We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Robert Kenyon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Robert below.
Robert , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience started at a rather young age as we lived 7 of us together in a 2-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts. My first job was a paper route, the number of resident customers grew to the largest in the city. Winters were tough on delivery, and using a bike all through the winter months proved challenging. That came at 8 years of age.
Most people have never known that tobacco used to be grown in nearby Connecticut, the leaves of which they used for cigar wrappers. Working as a hauler, which had one place leaves into the basket laid in the aisle by the picker, the hauler would haul it out from under the nets to be carted off the to the tobacco barns. Summer time in New England was blistering hot, and working under the tents even hotter. Bi-planes were used to spray insecticide over the nets, and if you were well down the aisle gathering leaves, you were recipient of some rather distasteful spray from the aircraft. If you could haul 100 bents of tobacco, leaves strewn on the ground for about 20 yards each bent, you earned 6 cents a bent and a dollar bonus if you reached 100. Pick up to head to the farm was at 5:30 am and drop off back in the city at 4 pm. That begin at 11 years old and lasted each summer until I reached 17.
The way out of the small town for me was to join the Marine Corps, which I did on my 17th birthday, three months from graduating high school. Off to Parris Island, South Carolina in the summer months was not so much of a challenge, given my experience under the netting in the fields. The sand fleas were another matter. I served four and one-half years in the Corps with two tours to Vietnam.
Having left the Corps, I began my college career ultimately finishing law school and practicing as a Deputy District Attorney in San Diego for seven years. I left the practice of law to enter the travel industry and began my own travel company, First Cabin Travel in 1989. It afforded me the opportunity to follow my passion, which was to travel and over time allowed me opportunity to visit some 172 countries, some many times over.
In 2014, keeping up with travel, I began a publication titled Discover Magazines, which if one searches on Google for Luxury Magazine San Diego, it will be found near the top of Page #1. I began it to advertise my travel company and it has taken on a life of its own with a loyal readership and distributed throughout San Diego County.
All of the above provided through experience, both challenging and fortuitous, to learn that resiliency is something that is learned, and very difficult to teach. Challenges arise on many fronts, particularly when one strives to begin their own business, and what seems to be needed is a positive attitude, strong will and a bit of good luck. Unexpected occurrences seem always to appear on the horizon, some good and some challenging, and it is then and there that the fortitude to press on must be within the mind and spirit. Failure at whatever level will appear and it matters only what one does thereafter that counts.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My passion always has been for travel and it is why when I left the practice of law to began my first job with a luxury travel company in 1980 that I have never regretted nor looked back on that decision. I worked for the company for 9 years, accompanying travelers around the globe, occasionally by private jet for some 37 days.
Having had that opportunity and the wealth of memories created by visiting all of those countries, many of which are rekindled on a daily basis, proved to be a very worthwhile experience. Beginning the magazine opened up an entirely new world of contacts within the community and the combination thereof has made both experiences worthwhile. No doubt that the print industry has its own challenges with the advent of the internet and heavy presence of social media, however, done properly and focusing on the right demographic makes success attainable.
Aside from the satisfaction of operating the two business enterprises is having entered marriage and welcoming three children into the world. No doubt handling two businesses and family takes a rather large bite out of the day, however, the rewards of having family together outweigh all efforts required.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
One quality I think paramount is perseverance. My high school studies were less than admirable, and having realized that the Marine Corps was not to be a long time career, I had to start on the bottom rung of the ladder in my efforts even to get into a college and then complete law school. I also had the challenge of earning the funds to find housing and pay tuition. I relied on a variety of part time jobs in the evening, sold my plasma for dollars, and even took WWII rations handed out once every three weeks by the community in which I attended school.
One also must have a positive attitude, which for anyone living in the United States should not be very difficult to acquire. Having visited so many Third World countries, I know for a fact that those who reside in those countries so wish that they had the opportunities that we find available to us.
Another is to do your very best at whatever the task, and when the day draws to a close, have a good night’s rest to go at it the next day. There will be times when it seems hopeless, yet however many doors close, there will be others that open. The difficult part of crossing the valley floor, worse yet feeling you are in swamp water, is to understand that tomorrow might well be a better day, and if not the next, so never let go of the dream and always step forward.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
My biggest area of growth the last 12 months has been to accept that collaborating with others, the right individuals can make your successes more rapid and much greater. I always have been one to be somewhat of a loner when it comes to my business dealings, however, recently I have had greater success when allowing others to collaborate with me toward a common goal.
I think one need be careful as to who you do collaborate with, however, the results can be very meaningful.
Contact Info:
- Website: firstcabin.com discovermagazines.com
- Instagram: @firstcabin. @discovermagazines
- Linkedin: discovermagazines.com
