Keith Cameron Smith

Early life and career

Smith was born in Shreveport, LA in 1971 to a lower-middle-class family. His father sold auto parts to small garages around town and rarely made more than $25,000 a year. But Smith showed early signs of entrepreneurship. His first entrepreneurial endeavor came when he was in only elementary school. He sold cinnamon-flavored toothpicks to other kids. He bought a bottle of cinnamon oil from a local pharmacy, soaked toothpicks in it each evening, then took them to school the next day, sell them and go home with cash.

In middle school, he would take his lunch money and buy thirty large sticks of gum on his way to school. The gum cost him ten cents a piece and he would sell them for twenty-five cents a piece when he got to school.

After high school, Smith took up golf and him and his friend would go around to golf courses and wade in shallow ponds to find golf balls. They would find a few hundred balls and sell them the next day to a used golf club shop. Eventually, Smith became a cart attendant at a golf course. After a few years, he decided he wanted to become a club pro. He soon became frustrated at the pay and went looking for other opportunities.

His father suggested he sell R-12 Freon for car air conditioners. Smith started selling Freon with a little success. And then fate stepped in. Smith went to an auction one night for fun. He started buying used furniture and selling them at the flea market.

This led him to eventually open his first used furniture store, which turned into a string of furniture stores in Ormond Beach, Fl.

Smith would eventually get involved in real estate investing and become a book author and motivational speaker. His book career got started by self-publishing The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class in 2005. Within months, sales for this book skyrocketed and Random House quickly purchased the rights to this book. Smith became a self-made millionaire by the age of 33.

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