While still a teenager, Hoover and a friend started a company that sold and repaired sewing machines. The business failed, but it was not the future president's only brush with entrepreneurship.
He enrolled at Stanford in 1891, in the university's first class. Although tuition was free at the time, students still had to pay for room, board and books. To cover the costs Hoover ran a laundry service, a concert series and a campus paper route. He made a profit selling the laundry service to another student, allowing him to graduate with no debts and $40 in his pocket, according to a biography written by Amy Ruth.
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After graduating, Hoover took a job pushing carts underground in mine shafts in California. He earned $2 a day, working 70 hours a week, according to presidential historian Richard Norton Smith. That daily wage is equal to $56 today.
