Pick Up Those Pennies

In the summer of 97' I went to visit my father in New Orleans, LA. I was 14 years old at the time and hadn't lived with my father since the age of 5. I'd always heard that my father was a businessman. And being the entrepreneur he was, my father established a successful fruit peddling business by selling fresh fruit (an apple, orange, and banana) seen through a clear plastic bag and a good-sized bag of peanuts, either for $1. My father and his employees met customers at their car windows as drivers stopped at red lights throughout the city.

Always professional and clean, a money-green T-shirt with the phrase "Eat Healthy, Fruit Bags $1" in yellow print, or vice versa was the attire. The bottoms were usually jeans, but whatever pants one felt comfortable wearing and, quite probably the most important thing, a pair of comfortable shoes because you were on your feet 10 hours a day.

This was not an easy job or business to manage! For the billions of people on our planet who have never worked this type of job, its important for you to know and understand that you can't be successful at a job like this if you're quiet or operate from a standstill. Whatever you're going through at home or even on the way to work must be put away as soon as you hit the ground, because you have to be ready to approach people in a welcoming and lively manner; and keep that up all day long.

As a teen, I was kind of embarrassed to do this type of work, because peddling made me feel like a beggar. Nevertheless, I was so excited to be in my father's life, that I bared the humiliation that came with standing at car doors and beckoning drivers and passengers to patronize me.

On one occasion, while being orientated, after my father and I had just set up our location on Carrollton Ave., he did something else that humiliated me more than the daily job of peddling: He walked up and down the median that divides the traffic (‘neutral ground’ as they call it in New Orleans) and picked up every penny that he could find! Those pennies mostly came from another kind of peddler who may have been more annoying than us: the Traffic Light Window Washers. These guys would enter traffic during the red lights -- same as us -- and would solicit drivers to let them wash their windows. I don't think I know anyone who liked those guys! Well we might have been just a step up from them ;-)

As if being on the corner soliciting drivers for their business wasn't humiliating enough, my father took it to a whole new level by picking up the pennies those Traffic Light Window Washers threw away. Then, after a few seconds of this torture, my father took me to the zenith of embarrassment by saying something like "Soul, come help me get these pennies." On the inside I'm like "hell nawh!". But like the respectable son I am, I began helping him pick up those pennies -- but not with the zeal my father had ;-)

My dad -- I'm sure sensing my emotions from the predicament he put me in -- gave me one of the many valuable lessons he taught me. He explained the value of a dollar and how so many financially illiterate people throw away their dollars; like the very peddlers who were basically begging for change, yet were throwing their pennies away.

Like most lessons, what my dad taught me crystallized the more I matured. So many lessons are wrapped up in this one experience, but the one I want to pay special attention to is: RESPECT FOR A DOLLAR. To respect a dollar is to respect our pennies! People’s lack of respect for pennies run so deep that many will see an item priced at $8.99 but describe it as costing $8.00; when it’s in fact only one penny closer to $9.00. How many times have you done that?

In the same way that our habits shape our behavior, its the collection of smaller things that create a solid foundation to build greater things to come. So to all of my people out there who desire more wealth in their lives: in addition to earning more money, I ask you to also start paying more attention to your dollars by having more respect for the quarters, dimes, nickels, and YES – the pennies that you attain. This means to be more aware of your spending, saving, and frugality as a whole. If you look around, you might discover that you have been throwing [wealth] pennies away yourself.

When I went to New Orleans, LA in the summer of 97', my father was renting a very...I'll just call it humble ;-) shotgun house in the lower 9th Ward (across the canal). However, when I came back to stay with him the following year, he was living in a very nice two story condo in Gretna, LA (on the city’s West Bank) that was setup so beautifully, you might of thought he hired an Interior Decorator.

By the year 2000, just 3 years later, my father bought an even nicer 4 bedroom home in a VERY NICE part of Algiers, LA and an all-black 1998 Lincoln Navigator (visual if possible) that was bought outright.

I say the above not to impress you, but to impress upon you the benefits of being frugal while showing you a timeline of those results.

Please, don't be like the Traffic Light Window Washers who throw away the very blessings that they're looking for. Take a lesson from my father and start picking up those pennies.

Much Love,

SOUL