Today, my son started his first day of work. He’ll be twelve in a few days. He asked his dad (who has his own business) if he could start working for him. I have to say, I’m impressed. Even though it is the height of summer, he lives at the beach and there are lots of pretty little girls around who adore him, he chose to get started on his “plan.”
Yes, my son has a business plan…to earn money working with his dad for a few months, then take that money and invest it in some inflatable bounce houses (the kind you see at fairs and birthday parties). He’ll set up on the beach and attract the kids from all of the vacationing families and become a millionaire.
I’m so happy that my kid sees opportunities, where others just sit around and wish there was “something to do.” I know that he has what it takes to be a success. I am fighting off all of those negative comments that I would have received from my own parents if I had proposed the same business plan to them when I was his age.
I grew up in an atmosphere of the “lack mentality”…disappointment and pessimism in regards to the entrepreneurial mindset. My father partnered with a drinking buddy in a contracting business, which needless to say went down in flames quickly. He let the entire experience do him in, and it took its toll on the entire family.
My grandparents had a successful restaurant, where I started working when I was about the age my son is now. But instead of encouraging me to become an entrepreneur myself, they groomed me into the ideal employee…it became very hard for me to see myself in a position of management, delegation and/or respect of any sort. I knew how to work very hard in hopes of getting a pat on the head, but not much else.
But I wasn’t encouraged to save money and invest it in my own business. I was trained to believe that starting and running a business was an endeavor that would eat up your life; that most businesses were miserable failures and that you could lose everything by trying to go out on your own, and it was best just to be a great employee, make your boss (i.e. grandparents) proud, and keep your nose to the proverbial grindstone. Spend your money on clothes and food and junk and just be a happy idiot.
I earned $2.80 per hour and all the tips I could smile hard-enough to coerce out of the purse-lipped old ladies, which amounted usually to the obligatory shiny silver quarter discreetly hidden under their lipstick soiled coffee cups. I did go to college, a 2-year tech school because I couldn’t afford much else. Apparently my self-concept as perpetual food service monkey was a strong theme with me even there. The other day I found a card from a friend with these reassuring words scribbled across it…”Don’t worry, JoAnn. You have what it takes to be more than just a waitress.”
It sounds harsh to say, but I was trained to be a life-long waitress. It took 10 years of Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, self-hypnosis and subliminal recordings to break free of that brainwashing. And as helpful as they’ve been, I don’t stop listening because that early influence is hard to kill and I feel I have to keep on top of those ghostly whispering voices from the past that tell me the cards are stacked against me, and success is for stronger, smarter and more capable people than myself.
I’m now living a life most people only dream of, and for that I am eternally grateful. I live on a beautiful Caribbean beach, my days are spent pretty much however I see fit according to the mood I’m in, I have a wonderful housekeeper who takes the burden of mundane tasks off my hands and I have a great family that I adore. The work I do now is more for my own need to feel like I’m making a contribution rather than with the intent of bringing home the bacon.
Stifling those negative voices isn’t the difficult chore it once was, but it is still a priority. Especially when I felt those discouraging words rise in my own throat as my child told me his master plan to become a millionaire by the time he is 17. Instead of letting them spew forth from my own mouth, making me a ventriloquist’s dummy controlled by people who had ulterior motives for undermining my confidence and independence, I quietly listened, then told him how proud I am of him and I know he will make it all happen.
So today I challenge you…if you are a parent, a teacher, or just a friend to someone who has big dreams (including yourself), strangle that little jerk who pops into your head and tries to speak with your tongue. You know the little jerk I’m talking about. The one who says “Nine out of 10 businesses fail.” Kick that guy in the teeth. Nobody wants to hear what he has to say, anyway.
Tell a Friend
