Thrift-store Millionaire

Yesterday I was at the thrift store picking up some books with my kids.

As we were checking out, my 6 year old Kashton, was paying for his purchases with this credit card style gift card he’d won in a coloring contest.

The lady cashier thought it was so cool that he was coming up the counter, swiping his card and handling the transaction all buy himself.

Before we left she leaned over and said – I want to give you some advice on money.

When you get older, make sure you go to school, get straight A’s and then you’ll have plenty of money to spend.

We thanked her sincerely for her extra touch of care on the checkout and proceeded to exit the store.

When we got into the truck I asked my sons if they thought that was good advice for learning how to build wealth in life.

I asked my oldest son Kayden, if he’s ever heard of anyone who’s gotten good grades in school, and then ended up not being financially successful.

He said, yup!

Then I asked him if he knows anyone who’s not gotten good grades, or even dropped out of school who’s ended up becoming wealthy.

He said, “Yes”.

Then I asked my boys, where does money come from?

The first answer was “my mind” – and I was proud of that answer.

We then dug a little deeper.

Eventually we came to the answer that money comes from people.

If you want to learn how to get money – learning to offer valuable products & services through the skills of sales & marketing sure seems to me, to be a much more reliable way than getting A’s on a report card.

This isn’t to say that doing well in school doesn’t have value.  Of course it does.

It’s just that the line from A’s to money isn’t as direct as most people think.

Sales to money, on the other hand, is.