Around the time I turned 16 I went with my dad to his work location in San Francisco. While I was there I socialized with his coworkers. I told them about the lab I was trying to build in my room and about my personal software and hardware projects. They were impressed and ultimately, if a I remember correctly, that ended in the CEO of the company (Grid Net, now Aetheros) Ray offering me an paid internship. I was happy to take it, as it sounded like a wonderful way to fund my lab. I did that for about 5 months.