When our son Randy attended middle school, my wife Carol picked him up after school because the walk was a bit too long and there were too many busy streets to cross. Sometimes on the way home a stop at the store was necessary to pick up needed items.
One such day entailed a stop at a wholesale bulk item store. The store sold many bulk items that provided local stores, restaurants and small mom-and-pop shops easy access to wholesale supplies. Randy convinced his mother to let him buy a box of “now-and-later” candy, a taffy-like candy individually encased in wax-paper wrappers and assembled in packs of five. The box was wholesale priced at half what it cost at a typical store. 
A few weeks later Randy brought some of his own money and bought five boxes. Each week the number grew until he was buying a whole duffle bag full. At this point I became aware of his purchases and inquired as to what was going on at school with all this candy.
Randy said, “I am selling these ‘now-and-later’ candies for quarter a pack.”
Considering he paid only twelve cents per pack, he made a very attractive profit, in excess of 100%. I asked if the school allowed this kind of business.
Randy said, “I don’t know, but up till now there‘s been no problems.”
I told Randy that if he were caught and reprimanded, he’d not only face the music at school but he‘d have to promise to cease and desist with his little business. He agreed.
For a few months, sales continued to be brisk and profitable, bringing in as much as $50 per week in profits. Then one day at the dinner table Randy admitted that he finally was caught. One of his “clients” dropped a wrapper on the floor. The teacher’s eye caught the event and reprimanded the student who promptly gave Randy up as the distributor. The teacher told Randy he must stop immediately.
With this news, I reminded him of our agreement and he assured me the program was finished.
The next morning, to my surprise, I saw him with two smaller duffle bags, both crammed with “now-and-laters”.
I asked, “What happened to our deal?”
Randy replied, “Dad, when you warned me what would happen if I got caught, I made a contingency plan. I am now only a wholesale distributor. I recruited two school friends as salesmen and they pick these up from me a block from school. They pay me 17 cents per pack and they sell them for a quarter. That way we all get a cut of the profits!”
I could only marvel at his ingenuity and forethought. Eventually, the program died when the school year ended, but what lessons he learned. These lessons served him very well in his future.
Turning Points
The turning point for me was to never underestimate the creativity of youth, especially your own children. Important was to guide them and their creativity toward positive life goals. Teaching consequences for actions was another life lesson of this experience.
A turning point for Randy was he learned that when one plan wasn’t working, another plan was required. The second plan needed to circumvent the issues that caused the first plan to no longer be viable. Creative thinking through the problem resulted in another success.
COPYRIGHT © 2014 ALLAN E. MUSTERER