---

Guest post by: Michael Hume Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

Sometimes The Smallest Help Can Inspire Good Things When I was twelve, I ran my first business. Okay, it was just a newspaper route, but it was a pretty big responsibility for a 12-year-old. I had to fold and load my papers as soon as I got off the school bus each afternoon, and get out there and toss those papers onto my neighbors' porches. On Sundays, I had to get up at 3 a.m. to throw papers that seemed to weigh about nine pounds each. And whenever I had a spare moment, I had to "build the route" by finding new neighbors and talking them into taking a subscription.

I grew the route from 30-or-so papers to more than a hundred in the six months I had the business. That may not sound heroic to you, but apparently it was quite an accomplishment. So said my boss, who told me the city's other carriers never did anything like it.

The trouble, of course, is that the more subscriptions I sold, the more papers I had to deliver. And I had to carry those papers in canvas bags slung over my shoulders. The bags got heavier and heavier, and I would like to say my shoulders (and other muscles) got stronger and stronger. No such luck. I was the same skinny kid at the end of the six months as I'd been in the beginning.

I sold enough subscriptions to buy my own black-and-white TV for my room (a BIG deal back then), a nice bracelet for my sister (though Mom confiscated it - I guess it was too nice), a basketball, a few minor treats, and (of course) the big one: my own bicycle. I wanted to deliver papers from my new bike, like most paperboys would do. How much easier THAT would be!

The boss gave me a different set of canvas bags, the ones designed for bicycle use. All I needed then was a way to affix those bags to the handlebars of my bike. I needed my dad to drop by the appropriate store sometime, and buy me two little hose clamps - the kind you see on the radiator hoses under the hood of your car. A few cents each (I offered to pay for them, of course). Just two little hose clamps, and my life would be a hundred percent easier.

Three things never happened as a result of my first six-month experience with entrepreneurship. I never built those muscles, despite walking all those miles and toting all that weight. I never forgot the lessons of building a business, of supply-and-demand, of personal responsibility, and of the blessing of free-market capitalism.

And I never got those damned clamps.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't mad at my dad for some time, though his only transgression was being too busy to make a trip to the store to get me those frickin' hose clamps. And I think he'd be lying if he said he withheld the clamps on purpose, as a way of teaching me some important life lessons. But here's the truth: it worked out for the best. If it hadn't been for the pain of those six months, crying from the weight of the papers, weary from the long journey around the neighborhood, hounded by the relentless pressure of having to work that route every single day... I'm not sure I would've truly learned the lessons. And I probably would not have remembered those same lessons, forty years later.

But here's another lesson: make sure your business is equipped for success. Do you have an employee, or sales rep, or assistant, who needs some small thing to make his or her job a hundred percent easier? Would a couple of metaphoric ten-cent hose clamps solve some big problems in your business?

If you want to inspire people, start by not making them mad every day. Start by finding out what they need to do the best job possible, and by giving it to them.

Don't cheap out. Buy the damned hose clamps.

Related Articles

  Row Sow Tow Your Boat
  The Art of Passion
  Tough times challenge and bring out the best in us
  The Time for Action is Every Day
  Like a dream come true
  Dream Car Insurance – Buying The Dream Car
  Why do you go to work?
  How To Live Your Dream Life!
  Sometimes the Emotion doesn't fit the Desire
  Smart Women Dare To Dream
  Wake Up and Live Your Deams Part 1
  Enlightened Millionaires: AHA Number 10
  Your Dream Job - Go For It! (Even if You Currently Have a Good Job)
  The Journey to Success - Persistence
  The Poorest Man is the Man who does not have a Dream.
  Ambush
  Successful Entrepreneurs - 3 Must Have Characteristics
  3 Powerful Processes for Creating Your Dreams Today
  You Can Have a Thriving Home Based Business Opportunity
  Relax. It’s Only A Network Marketing “Dweam”.

Related Forum Posts

Off to get married, Congrats
Re: What is one of your favorite sales and marketing book?
Re: What inspires you?
Re: What inspires you?
What Holds Women Back

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Common Sense Leadership

Build Corporate Credit for Your Small Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.