When I was 15, I wanted a job at McDonald's. My dad said to me, “If you want a job so bad , I will pay you $6 an hour,” which was a lot of money 25 years ago.
He wanted to pay me to stand and stare directly at the wall. He said, “I will pay you $6 an hour every hour you stand looking at the wall.” I was so excited my dreams of buying a Motorcycle came to the edges of my mouth and I asked him “for real?” Then, being young, I asked “Is there a limit to how many hours I can stand?” “No” he said, “every day, all day.”
My younger brother was jealous and said, “What about me?” My dad said, “You too!” So we both faced the wall in the dining room and he only had 2 rules: we must pay attention to the wall and not lean on it.
My younger 12-year-old brother lasted less than a half hour and I lasted 2 and half hours; standing was okay, but focusing on the wall was near torture.
Having no goals, being homeless, not trying to exceed your own abilities in any way is simply choosing a way of life that leads to the wall, which then leads to drugs and alcohol to cope.
I can always spot someone who ended up choosing the wall. They have this dead look in their eyes, smeared with a wet glaze as if a hundred tears have built up inside them and yet not a single tear can fall. Be careful of the wall that my father taught us about, for it can lead to some very very bad places.
I wanted to add the second lesson that my father taught me as so many people have asked questions.
When I was 17 and getting ready to think about college, he asked me to send out a resume as if I had already gone to college and gotten my degree. So I made one up with the plan that I was going to follow.
He then asked me to change the name and submit the resume for fun until I got an interview and so I started sending out the resumes and waited — with no stress, I might add.
Soon I realized that no one had gotten back to me and I sent out more of them and after a month I started to stress some as no one had gotten back to me, so I changed the resume.
I upgraded the college to a better one, I updated my grade point and I added some charity work and school participation and sent it out again.
This time I got an interview and my dad thought it would be good for me to go but my mother did not allow it, so I did not go to the interview.
What I did learn was that I did not enjoy the fact that I had to completely change my life, who I was, where I was going to school, and my grade point average to just get an interview.
I thought about the two months just waiting for the chance to be seen and it really bothered me and so at a very early age I decided I would never depend on the world, but rather they would depend on me and I became self-employed and never looked back
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