You are not stuck where you start. The titans of American business, those who have made the greatest contributions in American commercialism, from everything I have read or studied, started out low and rose rapidly. The secret to success in business, as shown by Sam Walton, Warren Buffet, Thomas Edison is to study, work hard, have something to sell. Now as always, with real estate, securities, “widgets”, buy low and sell higher. It is the profits involved in capitalism that has always made this country great and so many people who got ahead of the herd.
I do not have one item in my house, one article of clothing in my closet that was purchased new. Now, totally blind for so many years, my days of thrift stores, discount warehouses, yard sales are over. But as an example, living alone and taking care of myself, everything I have has to be simple to use. My long-time, second-hand, coffee percolator quit on the job recently. We looked for a used one online, went to all the second-hand stores in town, found nothing, but I had put the word out that I needed a percolator. One of my friends came in with one he found at a yard sale and I am back in business again.
Younger, still with some vision, I went to every fire sale, closing business sale. Once, a farm supply place had a fire, I stopped by to see if there was anything in their fire sale which I could use. There were many plants, a large tub which had been scorched by the fire, the fire department with its water had eradicated all labels. They were selling the plants for practically nothing. I bought two bunches of the plants for 50 cents. When I got home, my wife said, “do you have any idea of what you purchased?” I said, “no, the plant may be a tree, a bush, a flower, or a vegetable, you'll just have to wait and see.” I carefully put each plant in the ground, packing the soil around it, then you wait and see what develops.
So it is in life, you have some idea of what to expect. You cannot buy a Timex and hope it will become a Rolex. You cannot buy a bicycle and expect it to become a Cadillac. You do not buy a 5-room house and expect it to become a mansion. A throw-away puppy or kitten on the street, with loving care, may become the best pet you could ever want. The secret is planting them well, giving them the care they need and waiting for their development. Everything in life, as we find in the scriptures over and over, involves sowing and reaping. You never understand God's Book, God's plan for the world, until you understand sowing and reaping. You reap what you sow, just wait and see. Often you make critical decisions in sowing and reaping, faith enough to wait and see.
It is more difficult to wait than it is to work. The thing I remember most about farm life, it was always too wet or too dry. But, my father, a man of commitment, convinced, confident in his faith, at times of drought, would say, “the roots of these plants that seem to be drying up in the hot sun, are going further and further into the ground, seeking moisture. When the rains come, and they will come, as they always have, these plants will take off and grow up almost overnight...just wait and see.”
Only one who has been real thirsty, such as I have been many times in my life...most memorably in Egypt, near Abu Simbel...you walk in the desert until you spot an oasis. The story is told of a man in the desert approaching the oasis. There was a well and hand-pump in the oasis with two objects at the side of the pump. One, was a container of water, the other, a sign which read, “you must use this water to prime the pump, if you drink it, there will be no water to prime the pump for any other traveler.” To a man dying of thirst, this was an awful decision. Realistic man as I am, I believe I would have taken a few swallows of water, but it might take all of the water to prime the pump. Once the pump is primed, you have plenty of cool, delicious water, and can fill a container full for the next traveler.
For one not raised on a farm, where we had these type hand pumps all over the farm, in order to water crops, animals, etc (always with a large can of water close-by used to prime the pump). Water is poured into the pump on top of the plunger to lubricate and expand the valve, so it can bring up water in the pipe to the mouth of the pump. The valve is made of a leather-type material which responds to water, giving the plunger the energy needed to bring up water in the pipe. Before the hand pump, and even back into Biblical times, water was drawn up from the well with a rope and bucket. Pity today's schoolchildren who are taught nothing about the labor of their ancestors...they all think that water has always come from hot and cold faucets, that meat has magically appeared on the grocery store refrigeration counters, that eggs are manufactured in some factory, and that flour and all the delicacies of modern eating just appear magically like the favors of fairy land.
For most of my life, I have been an antiquarian book collector. Someone had purchased a book on butchery from me; two of my employees, looking at the pictures of the butchery of meat, became ill. I said to one, “I bet you would not be able to “dress” a rabbit.” He said, “in clothes?” Such is our education system, such is the heritage of our youth, just wait and see. Never dampen the spirits of any child, interested in anything, athletics, music, art, dancing, cooking, farming.
Last week, one of my friends was buried. His parents were tenant farmers, I never saw his father in a church. His father was a hard-working dirt farmer, his only interest was in athletics, he attended all the local schoolyard ball games. In the backyard of this modest, rural tenant farmer home, the father had erected a basketball goal to exact specifications. He stood there, after working all day, and coached his son in throwing hoops; with two gloves, he taught his son to throw a baseball. The father had only a third grade education but he had read every book on sports. His son went to the university on a baseball scholarship, later on to graduate school, writing books on sports. Dr. Edgar Hooks, ECU, was buried a famous athlete and coach.
I can give you the names of many successful artists from ordinary homes whose parents encouraged them to practice their talent. When you have talent, you are that much further ahead than the rest of us. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the US Army, a man successful in every way, missed his father's funeral on July 12th, 1942 because he was away in a war. He said his father encouraged him in everything, even painting on canvas. Would you like to know what an Eisenhower painting sells for these days?
Satan's greatest weapon is discouragement. Encourage your child, and indeed everyone you know, in every way possible. The greatest encouragement is to know that regardless of ambition, accomplishment, your life on this earth is just a transition place. The greatest tragedy of my life: the casket of a lost person taken to a hopeless grave, a valuable jewel in a velvet box...parents and friends caring more for the box than the jewel inside of the box.
