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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. With his latest project, Private Briefing, Bill takes you "behind the scenes" of his established investment news website for a closer look at the action. Members get all the expert analysis and exclusive scoops he can't publish... and some of the most valuable picks that turn up in Bill's closed-door sessions with editors and experts.