The daughter of people who forged their ways in this world, who decided working "on someone's job" wasn't going to work forever.
Father, a Haitian emigrant - age of fifteen, seeking a life that he couldn't find where he was.
Mother, a seamstress - a daughter of two entrepreneurs.
It is in my blood. If you recall, I gave birth to three children in a four year span. In that time, after discovering I was high risk, I didn't work during the middle pregnancy. Let's see if I can break this down, as to how serious this is in my head.
I grew up in a convenience store. I learned to "keep shop" at an early age (maybe five or six), ring up customers' purchases on the cash register, give change, help keep track of stock...and more. My mother was a seamstress in back, a steady stream of customers for taping up, fittings, and I on the floor picking up pins with a magnet, learning to clip long threads off of finished garments, playing with scrap materials wrapped on my dolls for fashion shows.
My mother continued to push on after my father died, one venture after another, each all about keeping her independence. There were a few network marketing attempts, her eye always peeled for the next better opportunity. Melaleuca, TPG, Mary Kay, and Avon. I was right there foot to foot behind her. In between working summers for the government programme to broaden my experiences, and taking over her odd job at the laundromat, there was always the hunt for ways to invest our money.
Just before I got pregnant the first time, I lost my job. I was upset, deeply. It was rejection. After putting in so much time for a boss who could never be pleased, I was fired. Loving my nieces and nephews the way I did, and having always baby sat them or have one or two with me whenever I was free, I proposed a plan to "school" them at an affordable rate. I even ended up with one child who wasn't related by blood because her mother liked what I was doing with the older sister who was my niece. And it was convenient to have one pick up for both girls.
I held a job after that, later that year. After months of fun learning, field trips, laughter and bonding, they were prepared for "regular school" and I went into the workforce.
My high risk pregnancy ended that employment a year later or so. After my son's birth, I launch into Avon full time. I had been doing it on the side for a minute. I bought my first car with my (ex)husband's help, but mostly bonus cheques from having a downline.
I continued that even when I was working and pregnant with my daughter. However, when my daughter was eight months old, my sister, mother and I joined up and decided to reopen the convenience store. We gave that a go, and I got the opportunity once again to have a group of kids to teach. My (ex)husband gathered desks and carpet and chairs when he did his runs at the dump on his job. We cleaned and disinfected everything, and my mother laid the carpet. I had a fully decked classroom. And my two, along with two friends' little ones, there were four excited playmates.
Over the next few years, after my mother died that year, after I closed the store because I couldn't handle all that was going on, there were constant attempts to make money from home. I sewed, which I didn't know I could do. I made slush in the gourmet ice machine to sell to school kids passing by, and finally took a two year contract job as a nanny for a gorgeous baby I grew to love as my own.
Two years later, after sending out my resume to numerous places and going on a few interviews, I was called by a lawyer with a more interesting request.
I spent five weeks that summer, hosting a playgroup at her house for eight children. Four pairs of siblings. This evolved, and continues to do so, three years later.
Still on the hunt for ways to make my money work for me, and gain financial freedom and time freedom, as well as get my health on track - I revisited another network marketing opportunity I had brushed off three years earlier. This one was it. So many things I needed combined.
No comments:
Post a Comment