No shame on you Ms. Betty-Sue…

As a kid my brothers and I were the quintessential young entrepreneurs. We sold everything from scented candles, oven-mittens, super-scrubbers and all sorts of candy. We even hand-picked and sold wildflowers if they were in season. Succeeding at this type of business definitely required us to have a pretty thick skin and short memory back then.

However, one specific incident that I’ve never forgotten though was the time when me and my brothers were out canvasing the neighborhood looking for lawns to cut with my Dad’s lawnmower. We weren’t having much luck at that time so we became extremely excited when we finally found someone to say “Yes” to our services.

On this particular day, a woman by the name of Ms. Betty-Sue listened to our sales pitch and gladly accepted our offer to cut her front and back lawn. Now this lawn was anything but typical. The grass was so high that we spent half of our day cutting the lawn because the blades on our mower kept getting bogged down. And, we also had to move a lot of debris.

After we finished our hard, half-a-day work, we then approached Ms. Betty-Sue with the great news. She was visibly impressed with our work and then to our surprise she said the not-so-magic words, “Boys can you come back at the first of the month when I get my check so I can pay you boys because I don’t have any money right now?” “WHATTTT!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!” We thought to ourselves. Realizing that there was nothing we could do about it, we reluctantly conceded and agreed to her wishes.

Well, when the first of the month came around we made a trip to her house, knocked on the door only to be told that she was NOT at home. We waited for a couple of hours then returned only to be told again that she had not yet made it home. This same scenario carried on for several days until we finally caught her at home, and what she said next really made us angry, “I thought I told you to come by on the 1st of the month, I don’t have any money now. You’re going to have to come back the first of the next month.” NOW THIS IS A BUNCH OF BALONEY!!! We thought.

The next month came and went with no contact with Ms. Betty-Sue and it even got to the point where her grass was in serious need of another trimming, but we definitely weren’t going to become suckers again. After a few months we then noticed that she had moved and that’s when we really realized that we’d been “Had” as the say.

Needless to say, we were highly disappointed that we were taken advantage of by a seasoned adult. But, you would be happy to know that we did not let this experience dampen and diminish our ability to continue to be kind and offer others the ability to acquire our services now and pay us later. No we refused to succumb to the bad-faith actions of the few and chose to focus on the inherent goodwill nature and abilities of the masses.

Simply put: I truly believe that the advantage of being taken advantage of gave me an even bigger advantage.

As a result, I’d like to encourage you to never grow weary of being good “to” people and doing good “for” people in this world, even when you may feel like you’ve been used, abused and flat-out-screwed.

No Ms. Betty-Sue, you DID NOT manage to steal my will or rob me of my ability to be kind to this struggling humanity! That little boy has now become a man and what you meant for bad has over the years strengthened me and turned out to be good, and for that I thank you. I will continue to lean forward in this “life” thing in service to others and smile as I attempt to Make it GREAT!

So, dare to join me and don’t let anyone compromise your kindness. Yes my friends be sure to keep your kindness keys at the ready and Make it GREAT!!!

Oh… And it’s always Ok to share if you dare… 😉

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