Work to Learn not to Earn

The first time I heard this was in one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books. Most people climbing a corporate ladder realize that certain positions lead to certain other positions in the company or in their field. But somehow these words simplified the concept in my mind. As our children where getting near working age I would remind them to look for work where the goal is to learn not to earn. A young person’s work may not lead anywhere on the corporate ladder, but if a lesson is learned then that is more important then either the money or the ladder climbing.

Our son recently got a job at a warehouse unloading boxes. He had to get up at about 2:30 in the morning to leave for work. His job was to take boxes off trucks and re stack them on the dock. He made the observation that in the small space at the back of the truck it was hard for 3 people to work as they kept bumping into each other. He was told to just stand a side till there was more to unload. Then he got in trouble for not working. He didn’t last there very long. I might worry that he was just an unwilling worker but I know my son knows how to hustle. I think it was a really good opportunity to learn.

So what did he learn?

First of all, getting up early for work is the pits. It messes with your health and your social life gets slammed too. He also discovered how employees like to set other employees up to look bad so they will look good. Finally he learned that logic and critical thinking are not really valued in many jobs. Systems are set up and if they don’t work smoothly, oh well.

He came home with more ambition to make money without a job. His eBay sales had been slowing down a bit. He was finding it hard to consistently find things to sell on eBay. The other problem was that now he was also broke. That tends to be a real motivator! Then Josh answered an add for new sheepskin car seat covers still in the box for $5.00 each. He bought a few to check out the quality and found they where fine and that they sold well on eBay too. So he obtained a small business loan from us and bought about 140 sheepskins covers. They are bringing in a steady $250.00 a week for him.

He has been able to develop a system even if it is not fully automated yet. He still has plenty of time to look for new deals while money is being deposited into his paypal account. I think he likes that. Now the boxes he moves are for his own business.

His latest deals involve looking for free metals to resell and cutting up wood off logged areas for firewood, all done with the permission of the owner of course <grin>. It is just more practice looking for deals in unusual places. It is also a way he can hang out with his friends while looking for deals and still have money coming in.

He is still working to learn, but he’s also learning how to earn – even when he is not working.

 

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