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If you're like most of us, I'm sure that at one point or another you've reached one of those crucial career junctures – you know, a point in time when circumstances forced a really tough job choice… or when you made a gutsy career call on your own.
For Rob McEwen, that critical career juncture came in the late 1990s, and it was accompanied by three tough-to-swallow realizations:
He was about to lose his company.
His miscues were going to cost workers their jobs and crush a venture that had a huge amount of potential.
And, worst of all, the failure would mean that he'd failed at his lifelong dream.
All his life, you see, McEwen had dreamed of being a gold miner.
That's no surprise, really. McEwen's father – Donald McEwen – was an avid "Gold Bug" and had even formed several gold-related investment companies.
So the son had grown up hearing wondrous stories about prospectors, grubstakes, and mining miracles; these tales were as much a staple at the evening supper table as the food the family ate. Indeed, "bags of rocks" were sometimes dropped on the family's dining room table – brought there by prospectors who were seeking working capital for their own latest dream.
McEwen followed his father into the investment business, working for a time at Merrill Lynch and then joining him as a partner at McEwen Easson, the mining-financing firm Donald had formed.
But Rob McEwen knew that – instead of just financing mines – he wanted to run a mine of his own. In his spare time, that younger McEwen even crafted a business plan detailing how a modern miner should operate.
For the time being, however, that plan remained just that… a plan. McEwen needed some sort of push to spur him to action…
About the Author
Before he moved into the investment-research business in 2005, William (Bill) Patalon III spent 22 years as an award-winning financial reporter, columnist, and editor. Today he is the Executive Editor and Senior Research Analyst for Money Morning at Money Map Press.
