[April 30, 2016] Children are quick to pick-up on life’s lessons … good or bad. It is expected that parents be diligent in providing a family setting that good lessons will flourish. It was up to my mother to tell me that the best way to be a good man was to have jobs as a boy that required hard work and reliability. And so it was no surprise that she volunteered me for the largest newspaper route in Abilene, Texas. This was not to be my last leadership lesson from her.
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are: hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense.” – Thomas A. Edison, inventor
I often wanted to quit. It was hard mostly because I had to awaken at 4 am for the morning paper and then after school deliver the evening paper. But once I adapted to the routine and obtained a group of dedicated customers, I could expand my route beyond its original size. Then I graduated to a bicycle to help speed delivery.
To say that I had the passion to deliver the newspaper would be wrong but I had something inside me that wanted money to get those things I wanted. My mother needed some nicer clothes and I got them for her. Christmas and birthdays were easier if you had some cash. But more than anything else I learned that you had to stick to something before it paid off. No, the newspaper delivery never got easier … maybe I only adjusted to it.
It was a long road but I learned the value of hard work by working hard. In later years while in graduate school I earned extra money by repairing rental property damage and by being a hospital guard. Most graduate students were dirt poor in those days but I had a car (it was older than me); my popularity soared when I could drive my friends into downtown to meet young ladies.
All my children in later years were to have their own newspaper routes. The perk was that they got to earn some money just like I did as a child. My son met his future Scoutmaster while delivering newspapers and later my son became an Eagle Scout. He learned not only that hard work paid off in cash but that it paid off in leadership traits.
Ann Landers once said that “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” My kids learned to “see” opportunities and that by staying focused they could achieve what they wanted. They are also successful and have families of their own.
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