If there is an easier way - I'm looking for it.
But this does not mean that I don't work.
I work a lot - it's just that usually it's not for the money.
Sure, I get money but it is just not my motivation.
I'm usually just as pleased with a bad tasting home cooked meal as payment as I am with dollars.
(If that is the best they can do.)
Money is just a byproduct of my work.
My motivation is always to help make people's lives better.
To teach them how to increase revenue while cutting costs without being distracted and wasting resources on those things which do not really matter.
To help them refrain from chasing the Joneses and instead learning to create their own standards of success.
But this is an almost impossible task.
Most people are easily duped into wasting resources on the material goods which they imagine the perceived higher classes having.
Most people want the labels even though they may not be able to afford the maintenance.
Back to being the self-proclaimed "King of Lazy".
My young niece used to think that I went to lunch for a living.
When I'd have to leave, "What are you doing?", she'd ask.
"Making money.", I'd say.
But all she saw were the three or four to-go containers from various restaurants I'd bring home most days.
(These were then brought to the homes of the elderly women I help out.
These women get meals from the best places in town but, to them, these still cannot compare to their home-cooked ox tails, pig tails, bologna and wiener gumbo, potato chip encrusted government cheese macaroni, or smothered chicken feet and gravy.)
All she'd see were the checks received in the mail.
To her, my 'job' was to eat lunch.
Now that I'm kind of busy working with several night clubs and with less time for her - she now thinks that I go to night clubs for a living.
When ever I have to leave and she asks,"What are you doing?" - "Going to the club.", is my most common answer.
She thinks that the only time I do any actual work is when I have to supervise or correct the construction work of her older cousins.
"Don't you ever work?", she often asks.
But she my still be too young to understand that my reputation is what makes money for me.
That my good standing and connections with other club owners, beer and liquor and wine vendors, band managers and band members, DJ's, caterers and restaurant owners, and many people who frequent these clubs is a commodity which new club owners lack.
She may not know it yet but she watches as I maintain potentially valuable relationships with people who may be able to help me later.
She watches as I take a back seat that I am constantly being pushed to the forefront.
She watches as I listen more than I speak, even though people are usually asking for advice.
She watches as I turn a relationship into a profit.
While she says that she wants to do what I do for a living ( "going to lunch and night clubs") she is picking up mannerisms and social skills which will enable her to open doors with her head instead of having to tear down walls with her brawn.
unless, of course, the "gift" of opening doors with a brain can only be obtained (and maintained) with some of the wisdom gleaned by the work of tearing down walls with brawn...,
ReplyDeleteIs it possible uncle John that there may be something more than just keen intellect and sharp trading at work on your behalf - could your influence be the result of an intangible something else you've accumulated through your cumulative work (and works) - and that there are no shortcuts available for acquiring and accumulating the type of riches on which you bank?
Perhaps.
ReplyDeleteBut this little girl will pick up a nail gun and immitate me faster than will her older male cousins.
This little girl did a lot of 'free' work over the summer for some elderly neighbors only to unexpectedly be rewarded weeks or months later with gift cards in time for school shopping.
This little girl turned a money losing cold weather lemonade stand into a money making hot chocolate stand when her older cousins just followed the directions given.
She's doing the work (and works) - she just doesn't know it yet.
And by the time time she does, it will be second nature.
in which case she's receiving the gift of work in its entirety and all-a-what you said will apply.
ReplyDeletegood on her and good on you!!!
My nephew thinks I just tell people what to do and then go and run on the beach! He thought all I did was turn files into the government and then get money. Like your neice they don't see the efficient running of my business enables me to give the impression that I am wealthy beyond my actual money.
ReplyDeleteAs he gets older and I explain to him what I do he can't believe I used to be on call damn near 16 hours a day. I told him it takes a lot of hard work to start it and not as much to maintain it. I said when you see people seemingly looking like they don't work it's because the work is being done and they only need to steer every once in a while to keep the big ship on course.
I agree with CNU as I think what you have was created through the struggle of trying to establish yourself. What you call it now aka your good name came from many years of being a good vendor, worker and man. These are the things that most youngins want to hurriedly skip over. So in the end it looks like you do nothing but in reality you do alot but you found a very efficient way to do it.