Padron, 49, got his first job offer while tossing a ball around with his junior-high buddies in a field near his home in Camaguey, Cuba. A carpenter interrupted the game to offer Padron and his friends 5 cents for every children’s swing they could make.
“I guess we were pretty good,” Padron says. “He’d come and get us whenever he had a big order. He’d say, ‘Hey, guys. I got 300 swings, let’s go.’ “
Padron and his friends would gather around a large table in a warehouse and assemble the swings, taking just a minute or two to fasten rope around a wooden seat. At the end of the day, Padron spent his wages on baseballs or parts for his favorite scooter.
“I have always been sort of an entrepreneur,” Padron says. “When I look back, that was probably the starting point. We were a middle-class family with an OK income, but we didn’t have a lot of money for discretionary things. I learned that I could get those things on my own.”
