'I was broke and worked on a construction site at 18 – now I'm a millionaire'

Michael Carbonara is now a wealthy businessman aiming for a political career, but his journey to the top started with a string of dead-end jobs that left him worn out and short of cash. The American entrepreneur claims he once scraped by as a "broke" construction worker before becoming a millionaire and running for Congress. His first step on the career ladder, he said, came at 16, working part-time in a restaurant kitchen for a $5.75 minimum wage. After finishing high school in 2001, he then ventured into the world of construction at 18, grafting sometimes to the point of "heat exhaustion". Michael said he would work 40-hour weeks during the summer, making only enough to "get by" with nothing left over to save. The dad-of-two says he worked manual labour jobs into his early twenties and even worked in an auto mechanic shop for 12 months. But with a dream of working in the finance industry, Michael quit his blue-collar profession and bagged himself his first office job at Philliber Research Associates in 2005. There, he claims he learnt the ropes of the business world that led him to launch his own digital banking platform called Ibanera in 2011. The 42-year-old claims this company helped make him a millionaire. He's now running as a Republican candidate for Congress in Florida this year. Michael, from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, started on building sites in high school because his family was in construction. "My first job in the summer out of high school I did blacktop work paving roads and driveways," he said. "I did a lot of manual labour and I didn't know what I was doing in life, I was just trying to make it by. It was tough work. I remember doing work in the summer time and had heat exhaustion on a daily basis. He then switched at 21 to working in an auto mechanic shop, where he lasted a year. "When you're 18, 19, 20 years old, getting paid anything is exciting. I wasn't building a savings or a future but I was getting by," he said. "Looking back, I was happy with this job. I had fun and I was working with good people and it was something different." Manual labour is now a distant memory, although he "loved doing different jobs and learning different things". "I never wanted to be doing just one thing my whole life, I'm very fortunate to have a lot of success," he said. As an entrepreneur, Michael says he works an average of 60 hours a week with little spare time. While he loves the career path that has given his family a stable life, he misses the 9-5 grind. "I don't have any hobbies ," he said. "My hobbies are building and creating and starting businesses. The more I go in this direction, the more I don't get to clock out 9-5pm, it's 24/7. The more complicated it is, the more responsibility you have. "You can enjoy life more when you have a nine to five as you don't always have to be turned on all the time. I do miss this and those days are fewer and fewer between." Michael adds that he's still "a very modest person", usually to be found in "shorts and a t-shirt". "I didn't come from anything and I'm not a materialistic person," he said. "You need money to live but once you get to a certain point, you realise money is just a tool from point A to point B and I try not to lose sight of this. "I'm not chasing money. I try to be happy and have a good quality of life. Money has never been the goal, achievement is the goal." If he wins a seat in Congress , Michael aims to open economic opportunities, drawing on his "hands-on" experience. "If I won, I'd be excited to get to work," he said. "For me this isn't a career, I want to immediately get to work and solve people's problems and bring back their freedoms... "I think working in blue and white collar jobs will help me in this role.... I have worked in every type of position from working in the back of the kitchen in restaurants to construction work to cars. I've done it all." For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .