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From Tupperware to Bookkeeping

Written by: Keith Ferrazzi

Article Overview: On a flight to Florida this week I sat next to an incredible woman who runs a conservancy for primates - chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, etc. -- who told me the most amazing story about her mother, a story that would have been in Never Eat Alone's chapter 4, "Build it before you need it," if I had heard it sooner.

From Tupperware to Bookkeeping

On a flight to Florida this week I sat next to an incredible woman who runs a conservancy for primates - chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, etc. -- who told me the most amazing story about her mother, a story that would have been in Never Eat Alone's chapter 4, "Build it before you need it," if I had heard it sooner.

Shortly after she was born, her father left her mother and her mother was diagnosed with polio, relinquishing her to a wheelchair. She was only getting something like $25/month in alimony and child support--barely enough to get by. But this was just when Tupperware came out, so she started selling Tupperware and taking correspondence courses to become a bookkeeper.

(Sidenote: One of our clients is Avon, and it never ceases to amaze me how these companies have done so much to enable and empower so many independent moms over the years to have their independence the way this woman did.)

Well, when she was out selling Tupperware, which paid for her correspondence courses, she started telling all the women that she was going to be a bookkeeper and through the time they spent together was selling herself before she even knew what a balance sheet was. The relationships she had were so strong that she began amassing real clients a full year in advance of earning her degree.

After telling me this story about her mother, my seatmate left me with this to think about, "If my mother could get out there all those years in a wheel chair, I figure I can do anything on my two good feet."

So no more excuses. Build it before you need it.

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Article Tags: alimony, avon, balance sheet, bookkeeper, child support, chimpanzees, correspondence courses, good feet, gorillas, moms, no more excuses, orangutans, polio, primates, relationships, seatmate, tupperware, wheel, wheel chair, wheelchair



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