Start 'em Young

Yesterday, was actually long ago.

In business, I first spread my wings selling candles and plaster figurines that my step-dad made. I went house to house in our community in Lanikai, Hawaii. This is tough-selling and is the only way to build a foundation of resolute commitment which creates a sense of detachment. In one way, you are engaged in a transaction, in another, it is not all consuming because you the seller can go forward to the next predicament of another selling experience. I was 11 or 12 years old.

I next ordered a case of religious cards with soap samples shaped into angels and the like from a company. When I knocked on doors and showed them why I came, I'd hear, oohs and ahhs about my cards and soap sculptures. I kinda liked this stage until my brother Ronnie cut up all the soap. My mother was furious but she salvaged the soap and used the many pieces in the wash, cleaning, and where ever soap was needed. I moved on...What made my brother do that? Boredom? I was 13 years old, my brother 11.

I sold newspapers for the Honolulu Advertiser. Troubling as it was I got up at 4 a.m. every morning or so I wanted to believe. Some mornings, especially Sunday's, I found myself sleeping in. Until the singing morning birds woke me-it was panic. People waiting for their papers-standing in their driveways. Wow! That was what you can call a rush.

One area that I covered was so steep, I had to push my bicycle up this hill. Some Sunday's were so incredible I carried two bags full of papers because in one bag I'd only fit the exact amount for the 'hill' and leave the other very full bag by the stop sign before trudging uphill.

Then there is the lower area where I'd put my feet up on the handlebars as I raced past the running barking dogs that wanted to eat my legs off. Many mornings however, I did not get up on time. One trick I tried was placing my alarm clock on an upside down galvanized wash tub. Well, the sound would send anybody through the roof when the alarm went off at 4. Who did it wakeup? Not me-I slept through the ringing. The contraption gonged so loudly my step-dad was the one who would wake me up with screaming. I was then 13 or 14 years old.


Next phase of my career started when I was fifteen, just starting puberty. I became a grocery bag boy in a local store called Foodland Super Market. After school it was off to work. Work...work. Is it really all that it's trumped-up to be? Would it not be better if I were so rich that I did not have to work-I think so. Somebody's been feeding us these crazy belief structures you know. Oh, I digress.

All in all, I think for what it's worth, work tends to focus a person's being, if not for survival. Aside from the obvious, work should not be overly confusing nor out of balance. We really should be balancing focus to unfocusing structures or else we miss the whole point of being in business.

There is enjoyment in life and more and more people are looking for more of the enjoyment part of business. At least, I am. Long gone are the days of doing business for the rush. Freedom surely is a rush, but unfocusing is the absolute wonder of why we all try to obtain a bit of, or a piece of, that proverbial delicious pie. I am 60 plus today.