Jeff Durham was only 7 years old when he sold light bulbs door-to-door to raise money for his hockey team. His father worked for General Electric, so light bulbs were in abundance in the Durham home.
Even though all that hard-earned cash went to charity, he still developed a taste for the green.
So he started other grassroots ventures — selling fruit from his backyard around the neighborhood or spray-painting house numbers onto curbs.
For Durham, president and creative director for the Farmington-based ad agency Lang/Durham, that series of neighborhood jobs offered a glimpse of entrepreneurship. Today he owns his own agency.
Because of his father’s job with GE, the Durhams lived a fairly nomadic life, uprooting themselves every couple of years for a new job in a new location.
Each new home offered a new way for Durham, the fourth of five children, to make a few bucks.
Side Jobs, A To Z
He had a paper route and a job chasing hot air balloons for a hot air balloon company. He baled hay and tarred roofs. He was a caddy, a dishwasher, a waiter.
“I really enjoyed working … I really enjoyed the variety of experiences,” Durham said.
“My father instilled in me this idea that working is always going to be a fulfilling endeavor.”
When the time for makeshift money-making ended and college was upon him, Durham wasn’t sure about a career. His childhood drawings had always been forgeries of advertisements he’d seen here or there. But there were no guidance counselors at his high school to translate such a penchant into a possible career.
He tried engineering at Villanova, but that didn’t work. So he retreated to Mercer County Community College in New Jersey before landing a scholarship to the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
And so began his career in the field of advertising, one that landed him top positions at D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles Advertising in New York City and Maher Advertising in Hartford.
Then he launched his own firm in Farmington, Lang/Durham.
People Person
In 2006, Durham purchased the agency from his partner, and beginning in May, the firm will be known as The Durham Group.
Durham’s sole ownership of the agency is a benchmark of entrepreneurial success — a far cry from the odd jobs of his youth.
But however insignificant they may seem now, Durham said they taught him how to establish a rapport with people, how to build relationships.
“I have no problem engaging with people, and it doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from,” Durham said. “That’s been an important part of being a professional communicator.”
