I was in the beer business for over a decade (distributor) and in 2010 walked away and went back to school. I now own a small company with my father. We wear several hats, but all involve working with senior housing cooperatives. We do HUD insured master mortgages; we have a non-profit foundation for lobbying, education, and communication; and we also created a purchasing cooperative (for senior housing cooperatives) to leverage collective buying power. I realize that most (if not all) have not heard of senior housing cooperatives, but they have a small following in the upper Midwest (about 100 total in the US - 90 in Minnesota).
My maternal grandfather (jack of all trades, but in construction the majority of his working career) and my father got me into woodworking at a young age. I digressed when I learned about things with motors, then again when copious amounts of alcohol were discovered (first attempt at college), for the past ten years or so I have been dabbling more consistently with DIY stuff and home projects (when I have the time - twin 7 year olds at home). I have a hard time paying people to do things for me. I would rather spend that money on the tools required and learn the process myself. This upsets my wife to no end and is resulting with a backlog of projects that would take me several years to finish if I was working full time on them (the oldest of which is a Jeep CJ project that began in 1995... )
