Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Lessons Learned in My Youth.

Recently, I was reflecting on some of the lessons learn in my youth. Lessons such as the value of hard work, honest, commitment, and loyalty were learned the hard way. Unfortunately, due to babies having babies, out of wedlock childbirths, fatherless homes, and the lack of a good moral foundation, except for in some rare occasions, parents just don’t teach these values and lessons anymore.

My very first job was as an entrepreneur. I started my business not out a desire to work, but out of necessity. I was twelve years old at the time. It was the end of my 7th grade year, and after 180 days of providing my classmates with much needed comic relief as the class clown, my English teacher rewarded me with a little surprise. I could either fail English and repeating the 7th grade, or attending summer school. The choice was easy. Rather than repeat an entire year of school, "Alex, I'll take English Class in Summer School for $100, please." However, I had one problem. My parents weren't paying for it.

Unlike the parents of today that would blame the teacher, use money they couldn't afford to spend, or wouldn't care if young Eric didn't go to school in the first place, my parents understood the value in teaching life’s lessons. So whether I wanted to or not, I was going to summer school, and I was paying for it myself.

At twelve years old, there were a number of things I was able to do, however only a few that someone would be willing to pay me to do. One of these things was pushing a lawnmower. So that is what I did. I spent summer in 90-degree heat pushing a lawnmower, bagging and raking lawns the size of a football field for about $5.00 a cut. Furthermore, to earn the privilege of using our family lawnmower, I had to first cut our lawn, and buy the gas to do it.

Among the life lessons learned over that summer:

  1. The importance of doing a job (7th Grade English) right the first time.
  2. The value of a dollar.
  3. The importance of an education.
  4. The financial impact of poor judgment.
  5. The importance of hard work.

At the end of the summer, I finish summer school with a grade in the upper 90s, and I had enough money left to buy my very first digital watch. (Note: Digital watches were the latest craze, and all of the "cool" kids had them. It was kind of like iPods and cell phones of today.) Although I continued to do yard for many summers to come, I never again had to attend summer school to be promoted to the next grade.


Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?