Walking Uphill Barefoot with no Shoes
November 6, 2008
At the ripe ol’ age of sixteen, I found myself in the precarious position of living in my own lovely pea green apartment with cockroach house guests and a brand new baby.
I had glady made that choice, stubbornly fighting off the other options that life had presented to me, believing with a faith that only youth can provide that I was fully capable of providing all things necessary for the health, welfare and love of my child as a single mother.
A sickly child with asthma and immune problems made that even more challenging. I spent many of those first nights watching her breath with concave lungs struggling for air inside a huge tented crib filled with pumped in air in the children’s ward at the hospital.
I had been a good student before I made the choice to be a mother instead. Still, a sophmore education and the label of high school drop out isn’t a winning combination on most high paying job applications. And should there be any school age kids reading this-let me take a moment out right now to say- Stay in School. The road I chose wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy, there weren’t any parties, very little time for fun, and even less time for sleep.
Although I love my daughter with all my heart, there are easier ways to get to where I am today.
However, when I sift back through my life and review the life lessons that I learned along the way, there is no doubt, that the biggest bag of lessons were gathered together in those early days. Lessons about survival, lessons about delayed gratification, lessons about compassion, forgiveness, budgeting, the value of a dollar, the importance of family and friends and the amazing gift of unconditional love.
There isn’t a single day of my life that I’m not pulling one or more of those early lessons out of the bag and applying them to my life still today. They are as important now, creeping up to age fifty as they were in the pea-green days of my youth. They are timeless and the basis for everything I believe in.
In the last several months, one of those lessons keeps drifting to my mind on a daily basis more than ever. The world’s constant obsession, fear and chatter about world recession, world depression, cut-backs, banckrupcies and daily crisis has many people ducking for cover. “Woe is the world so, therefore, woe is me” is the daily whine that everyone seems to be drinking.
Well, I don’t want to be a party-pooper but no thank you, I don’t want any.
Perhaps our newly- elected visionary will bring about the answers everyone is looking for. I hope so. But I haven’t been waiting for my Knight in Shining Armour to come and make my life all better and frankly neither should you.
ObamaVision or not, the road to success is still going to be paved with the sweat of our own hands. It always has been, and it always will be.
Why do I think this? Well, my daughter was born in 1977. Any of you who might remember the late seventies may remember long gas lines, embarrasing politics, interest rates that soared into double digit territory, stagnation ( a lovely word isn’t it?) and a host of other lovely things designed to scare the productivity right out of us.
And I was perfectly positioned to fall to the bottom of the barrel.
But I didn’t. I succeded. I beat the odds.
I went to beauty school during the mornings and I worked on getting a hairdresser’s license. When I got back home, I would spend some time with my daughter. In the evenings, I went to work at a hot dog shop, selling hot dogs. On the weekends, I worked at our family’s beauty shop, better learning the trade so I would be ready when I got out to hit the ground running. Soon, as my hours were piling up at school, my hot dog “career” was taking off. Yes, I could have settled for slinging the dogs in a bun and getting back home, but I took the time to learn how the business worked behind the scenes. I asked lots of questions. I read books on small business manegement. I figured things out. I came up with ideas. Within three months I was an assistant manager. Three months more, when the manager quit, I was promoted to manager and tripled my pay. On the weekends at our family’s shop, I asked more questions, I learned how to run the books, how all the products worked, what went with this…what went with that…How to do color, how to do specialized perms that most hairdressers didn’t know how to do. I read books and I didn’t settle for the information that beauty school had to teach me.
I didn’t have time to grow my business at a leisurely pace. I had a child depending on me.
Fast forward nine months. I graduated from beauty school, had my license, had developed relationships already at both the hot dog shop and the beauty shop and on the first week as a licensed hairdresser, I had a healthy clientele ready and waiting and a good income coming in as well as the manager’s job at the hot dog shop.
I had kept my budget to the same exact amount as it had been when I first moved in, so the extra money could go into savings and paying the medical bills, which I had worked out a monthly payment plan on. Fast forward another year and I took my GED and went to college. Quit the hot dog job, got a job tuturing other college kids in the school library which paid my tuition, became the manager at the salon and with a few years tripled the employees and the value of the company. Graduated from college, grew my management and sales skills into other positions that further increased my experiences and marketablity.
Oh, and I saved enough to buy a house at age 20, with interest rates at the cheap old rate of 18%.
Why am I sharing this story? Two reasons. One, to tell you that hard work and determination CAN pay off, even during times that look a lot more daunting than these.
The second is to mention that if the route I took sounds a little exhausting ( and trust me, it was) there is a MUCH EASIER WAY to get where you want to go in this day and age.
Keep in mind that I didn’t even own a car. I walked or finagled a ride to everywhere I went. There was no such thing as getting up in the morning and firing up your lap top to see what options were available.
Now there is. These days, I don’t have to work quite that hard at success. I turn on my computer, I read, I pay attention and I listen to the right people.
IF you were paying close attention to my story, maybe some of you caught that the common thread of reading, paying attention and listening to the right people was woven in to everything I did back then too, but then, I had to walk to get there. Now…I click on to Naomi Dunford’s free classes and thank my lucky stars I don’t have to “Walk Uphill without Shoes” like in the olden’ days to Canada to get the best advice there is for making a lot of money right from the comfort of my computer.
I’m heading over there now. Will you join me? It’s a heck of a lot easier on the feet! Click on her post and let her help you get where you want to go!
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Comments
10 Responses to “Walking Uphill Barefoot with no Shoes”
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Wow! All I can say is, OUTSTANDING STORY, Wendi! It’s a truism that opportunity is really out there for pretty much all of us. All we need to do is make up our minds that we’re gonna do our part, whatever it takes.
Thanks a herd for the most inspiring post of the day for me!
Cheers!
Robert
Robert Hruzek’s last blog post..Winners and… the Other Guys
Great story, Wendi. “MUCH EASIER WAY TO GET THERE.” Maybe, but I think it’s the challenges that keep us in motion. When things are easy it’s easier to get complacent. If you did it “the easy” way, you wouldn’t have these stories to tell!
listening - something we could all use a lesson on - we’re so quick to interrupt, if only we took a moment to hear what other people have to say we might actually learn something, as you did.
Stacey Shipman’s last blog post..Getting Back to Your Senses
Thanks Robert,
I DO believe that anything we make up our minds to and are willing to put in the time and energy that we have increased our chances of success by almost 100%
Stacey,
Honestly, I really won’t stand here and encourage anyone to go that route without also telling them it is a rough, rough, road. I don’t want to be glamourising that to any idealistic kid out there.
But yes, I learned a lot and it has shaped who I am. But also, who I was, based a lot on the way my mother raised me, with a hard work ethic, helped me get through it. So which came first? I’m not sure sometimes.
And yes…listening…If I could share ONE important thing to everyone, learn from others. You really DON’T have to bang your head against every wall all by yourself.
You may not have waited for your Knight in shining Armor but you got him anyway! LOL
Wendi,
Excellent post. I’ve heard you tell parts of the story before (wasn’t it snowing when you walked uphill barefoot with no shoes?), but your message today is just about the best way to look at it.
We are responsible for ourselves, we should work like dogs to get where we want to, but to work alone, in the dark, when community is so much more readily available today is just plain silly.
As Stacey said, though, it’s every ugly moment (and every beautiful one) that made the beautiful, inspirational lady you are. Without every single grueling day, you wouldn’t be this Wendi. No doubt you’d be a neat lady, but you’d be a very different Wendi without those experiences that formed you.
Thank you for sharing this.
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Inspiration Points: S’Wonderful…
Wendi, what a story to share here! It really goes to show what hard work, determination, listening, and learning can do. I think we all are on that hill sometimes in our life. Maybe not the same hill you were on, maybe the hill isn’t as steep, or as long. But we all face challenges in our lives - and you sharing your story here gives us all hope and belief that all is possible - when we find ourselves on those hills in our lives.
The other thought that comes to mind - we all have the power to choose. You chose the right path up that mountain. The one that took hard work, the one that, I’m sure challenged you many times along the way. In the end, though, you did it for the right reasons, and did the right things. How easy would it have been to say “woe is me”, crawl into a hole of futility, and take your life in a much different direction.
Every time I stop over here, Wendi, I realize a little bit more, just how special of a lady you are…
Thank you for sharing a real heart-felt look at how you’ve got to where you are today…
Lance’s last blog post..Fear: Does It Hold You Back?
Hi Wendi you don’t look old enough to have had a child in the seventies. This is a v inspiring story. And it’s so true. The more shit we have to put up with, the more likely we are to achieve success.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Is Blogging Dead?
Irish,
Ah, You know what? You are SOOOOOO right! I did! I am lucky to have him. and I count my blessings.
Kelly,
You are right! I forgot about the snow, and the fact that I was walking backwards!
Seriously, Thank you…all of our experiences shape eah of us I guess, it’s what we are willing to learn from them that matters most.
Lance,
Thank you,
for me it is ALL about the choices. I didn’t ALWAYS believe that you know…my mother had to pound it into me bit by bit.
I used to say when I was a kid “You made me so mad” OR “Look what you made me do!”
and she would say…”Know one can MAKE you do, think or say anything. You were given free choice. USE IT!”
one day…it finally sunk in.
Cath,
LOL, you did get the part where I said that I started early right? By most people’s standards, I WASN’T old enough!…but…oh well! I wasn’t very traditional….
thanks!
great story! Hard work and determination do pay off. Thanks for reminding me!
Blake’s last blog post..The Incredible Edible Egg
Wendi, you continue to amaze and inspire me. I’ve been feeling a little down lately - about the economy. I don’t normally worry about finances because I know there are things more important than money. Now I’m not going to worry because I know that I can get the money I need. Thanks for reminding me
Now I just want to do what you’ve done and remind others they can get what they need too - by reading and listening!
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Hot off the Press!