As a teenager, Stanley worked for a local doctor who had no son and who began training him in various medical procedures. The doctor told Stanley that he had specified $5,000 in his will to be used to send him to medical school, due to his interest and talent in the training the doctor gave him. The doctor died when Stanley was sixteen, and he overhead the widow telling her daughter that she had seen to it that none of the money would be used for Stanley's education. The will was never found.

Stanley was hired by the Red Ball company in Des Moines, where he was in charge of the accounts and was entrusted with making bank deposits and various financial responsibilities. He met his future wife at Red Ball and was an honest, reliable employee.

After their marriage, he saw the need for a factory to manufacture the various parts needed to repair washing machines, as most families needed to repair their broken machines rather than purchase expensive new ones. There was no factory providing repair parts at that time, so he set up one in an empty building in Des Moines and began making the replacement parts.

He developed a mailing list and had a catalog printed with their inventory, which quickly became requested by repairmen in multinational countries as far away as Australia.

The business grew rapidly, and Stanley hired a family friend as a salesman, buying him a new car and sending him cross country with the catalog to bring in new repair company customers. The salesman brought back tales of companies that kept inventories of new machines, encouraging Stanley to combine sales of new machines with his parts manufacturing.

Stanley was eventually convinced and set up a showroom with a large plateglass window which showcased the latest models available. Just after getting set up and heavily invested in new inventory, The Great Depression hit, and no one could afford new machines.

He always said that had he not invested in the new inventory, he would have been able to weather the Depression, since his repair parts would have become even more needed, worldwide. He always regretted being influenced by someone else.