Photo by Kelly Hafermann
It’s the only way I know how.
I started working when I was eight. Because I didn’t want to be home alone, I walked down to my moms salon to hang out after school…. so they put me to work.
Sweeping, washing brushes, doing laundry… running for snacks.
Eventually, I got to answer the phones and I was so good at it, I took over the front desk completely. This was before computers…so I made up a customer contact system out of 3×5 cards and a shoebox. I also did scheduling – old school, with a real datebook. People got used to seeing kid behind the counter, and I learned a TON about customers.
Eventually I started a business from working there. My mother’s colleagues were complaining about how they never had time to do laundry and ironing…. so I offered to do it. It was a sweet system. I got to use all my mom’s supplies, and customers were lining up. Twenty-five cents per piece! I thought I was going to be a gazzillionaire…
But if I think about it, I was making library-style cards and pasting them in the back of my books in order to keep track of who borrowed them even before that…
I’m a systems creator. I can’t help it. It’s fun to me. It makes me great at running and streamlining things. And running businesses. And I guess, my household too.
That’s just me. What about YOU?
What are your earliest memories of putting things together? Were you a fly-by-the-seat of your pants leader? Were you an analytical kid who knew all the answers? Did you love to tinker and see what happened?
How has it affected the way you work as an adult? Have you been denying your natural work-style in order to “be like” someone else?
I run my life like a business, and it works for me. It might make someone else crazy.
You get to run your life your way. The question is have you established what your way actually is?
The Lesson: Everyone gets to choose how his or her own life works. Don’t copy someone else’s way, it may not be for you.
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