From The Storyteller
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Dec. 16, 2019
Hello All: Early life lessons, though painful at the time, can have positive results. Enjoy. Doug Laundry “If I could have spun those tires, my life would have turned out different.” My first car was a white, 1961 Chevy Nomad station wagon that was incapable of spinning tires, doing donuts or drag racing. I tried every conceivable way to make that car a “go faster”, and nothing worked. So it was that my desire to be a hot rod driver vanished like a tank of gas. My friends were kind when they called it a “dog”, and its one saving grace was that it was mine (almost). I was 19, and after a year of college I quit to start acquiring my first million, making $310 a month as a bank teller. Being a working man, I now needed a car, so my dad made me a deal - the family car for $900 (worth $1500), with $100 down and a promise of eight payments of $100 (no interest). I had “steel and wheels’’. The deal was struck in February, and by July, having made seven successful $100 payments, I realized that first million was a long way off, so I gave my notice at work and returned to college. When it came time for the 8th and final $100 payment, as an unemployed college student, I didn’t have it. This gave rise to my experiencing what it’s like to have a car reprocessed. All my dad said was, “Give me the keys”. I learned a big lesson that day, which taught me to see a promise (like agreeing to make 8, $100 payments) to be like laundry. It’s something that you need to pay attention to on a regular basis, or after a while it begins to stink, and the smell won’t go away just because you want it to. Moral: Failed dreams can be the best place to start going forward. |