Morgan: Young Entrepreneur
I know every grandparent has their own sense of amazement and uniqueness about their grandchildren. At least that is what I hear whenever I hear others speak about their grandchild.
Somehow I feel a need to describe one incident with my granddaughter Morgan that I think does place her in the unique and unusual category and puts her in the rarified air of strong mind and strong heart. So read this brag story about an amazing child.
For months now she has talked about making a store. “I want to make a store, Popo” and off she would go all over the house to gather things that she wanted to sell. She would organize and place them here and there. Like most adults, I responded with a “ sure, sure go find some things for your store or NO you can’t sell that, it’s mine.”
She was only 5 years and 3 months when this started in late October 2014. Naturally I assumed it was one of her games that would soon lose momentum and soon be forgotten. I never paid much attention to her efforts or even offered to participate…not that she asked for help….she never asked.
Back in March when she was only 4 years old she had demonstrated unreal determination and single minded driver personality, when she decided to give away her butterfly stickers while we were in Mexico. (See my blog about Morgan and her entire evening of approaching crowds of people giving away her butterfly stickers)
Months came and went and she mentioned the store occasionally as something she wanted to do. Then behold, the second day we arrived in Hawaii in December, she remembered her wish to make a store.
She exploded with excitement and energy and immediately set out to find things for her store. This was a holiday so we arrived with some things but not a lot. But from her small Princess carrying bag she pulled out a few things. There was her Wonder Woman cape. “I have two so I can sell one, and this one is nicer” she told me. From inside a metal Christmas ball tumbled out a half dozen tiny jars of glitter in different colors.. She even put out a blue latex glove that the customs office gave her. It was filled with water and blown up like a balloon. She then picked out one of her My Little Pony to sell. “Are you sure you want to sell one of your ponies, Morgan?’ I had to ask since they were really nice little ponies. Without any hesitation she took it out of my hand and placed it in her store. “yes, I have a lot and I can sell this one”
“I don’t know Morgan, this one is really cute. Are you sure?” “Well, Popo, you know you can buy it for you, “ she says with that twinkle in her eye that she puts on when she tilts her head and looks up at you. “Well I guess I can” I agreed and proceeded to pay her $1 for her pony. Her first sale. I made sure she knew that I got to take the pony home when we returned home, since I bought it. She had no problems with that and proceeded to explain the different ways to play with the pony as she grabbed the dollar and stuffed it into her ziplock plastic bag with a few coins.
We have to remember that up to this point, she has not asked for help, suggestions, assistance, or even an opinion. She did ask how to draw the dollar sign and then proceeded to make two pieces of large papers marked with 1$ and 2$.
So, I made her small slips of paper and suggested a separate label for each item. and she proceeded to mark a price for each item. As a result, the blue latex balloon glove was marked $4 , the pen marked $100, her cape marked $1 and each glitter $1. The tin Christmas ball seemed reasonable at $4.
The next day at the beach:
She was up and eager and ready. “I have my store. I’m ready to go” she chirped. Pierre and I nodded and still not sure what she will do. She has proven to be uncontrollable in her determination of accomplishing a goal.
I was more focused on showing everyone how nice the resort’s private beach was. Morgan climbed out of the car clutching her bag in her tiny hands and couldn’t wait to get on the beach. We arrived on the sand. It was late in the day and there were only a few people so finding a lounger was not a problem. I picked a spot with a bit of shade and started to pull up a couple of loungers. By the time I looked up there was Morgan dragging her bag , running up to a lounger close to the water. “Why don’t you put it here Morgan” I yelled out thinking that I could put some kind of control over the situation if she set up closer to me.
Before I could say Merry Christmas, she had all her things out on the lounger and was surveying the few people on the beach. With her personality, I knew she would start to go up to people and start to talk to them. Not sure what she would say, we could only sit in wonderment as she picked one couple after another and invite them to visit her store. Initially our own fear and embarrassment took over. We felt glad to be sitting further away. Funny how we are naturally conditioned to not approach strangers to sell something, with the fear that we were being pushy or invasive. She was far from where we were sitting so I’m not sure what she actually said. I think she asked if they wanted to look at her store. A lady walked passed us and said, ‘cute….she wanted to know if I wanted to go shopping”….
How do I describe Morgan’s attitude, focus, unrelenting drive to accomplish her objective. There was no fear. Rejections were not met with disappointment. She approached everyone with the same eager energy. Somehow she knew which ones might say yes and tried and tried again and which ones were definitely NO! and would just go to someone else. I noticed that she did something interesting. She would approach someone, get in front of them and then sit down on the sand and speak to them. Looking up she would speak, ask them the important question about visiting her store or interact with the kids in the group and then ask. She stayed down lower on the ground than her prospects and played a bit with the sand around her. I felt it was an interesting strategy that she lowered herself down instinctively. It made her less aggressive and I believe people were more receptive to her unusual request. It was unusual because of two things….she was so darn cute and so very young and confident. It was just not possible to say NO. but they did say no.
At some point she ran out of prospects. She ran up to me and asked, ”do you think a baby will buy something from my store?’’ At this point, realizing that there was no stopping her and why would I, I said, “sure, why not”.
She had run out of options since the three people who did visit her store did not buy. There was a new man with a very young baby in his arms in the water. So they became her next target. The guy just looked at her puzzled. He didn’t know what to make of this little girl squishing back and forth in the water in front of him asking him to buy something.
Finally one lady did trade her a nut bar for the Christmas ball and I thought she got a very good deal. It was a very nice metal Christmas ball worth much more than her little nut bar. A dad tried the cape on and laughingly offered to give her 4 coconuts for the cape. She followed him around. Asked about the coconuts still sqatting on the ground in front of him as she asked him about the coconuts. I started to worry that she was becoming a pest but then there was not much I could do. She was determined and persistent. Do you stop her impetus and extinguish that glowing entrepreneurial flame? Or is politeness more important? Fortunately he was a great guy and played along and told her he had to get coconuts.