douglasingram's posterous

Important Lessons via the Lemonade Stand

This past weekend I got the awesome pleasure of working for less than minimum wage in the hot Georgia sun!  What you say?  I got to be a  barista of a different order, instead of being a fine purveyor of wonderfully roasted coffee beans and scrumptious delights, I was pushing a fine yellow powder kissed with just the right amount of water and with a tinge of sweetness.  Really confused? I hope not. Simply put, I had the awesome pleasure to help my daughter in her very own lemonade stand.  

The "big event" had been some weeks in the making and finally our big break occurred.  The neighborhood was hosting a garage sale.  What goes better with other people's dusty junk and the Georgia heat and humidity - you guessed it Ice Cold Lemonade from a pretty, blond-headed five year old.  Although my daughter probably was most focused on drinking some of the fruits of her entrepreneurial efforts I had a slightly more educational approach in mind.  I had the pleasure of reading a post some months ago on Sebastian Marshall's blog regarding entrepreneurship and what it really means to be an entrepreneur.  Its a great article linked here: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/what-skills-do-you-need-to-be-an-entrepreneur-only-two.   In the article Sebastian mentioned showing his future kids the path of an entrepreneur at an early age, showing them specifically how to (1) add value to the things they touch & (2) get some share of the value they create.  This is a wonderfully simple idea and kudos to Sebastian for boiling down an idea that graduate business school professors (no offense to my special professor buddy at a great school) spend months trying to teach.

My goal in this endeavour was simple, help Mackenzie understand the concept of entrepreneurship and particularly the concept of investing and most importantly "PROFIT".   All in all it was a tremendous success and something that I will continue to repeat in different forms and fashions with both Mackenzie and my other daughter Carrigan.  The formula for us that worked so well was pretty simple: 

(1) I let Mackenzie use her "investment" envelope to buy the supplies.  She counted out the money, she knew how much she was investing & I let her decide what she wanted to purchase (with a bit of guidance). Our total investment was $6.50 - including bottled water, ice, lemonade mix, fresh lemons, etc. (NOTE: We use the Dave Ramsey school of thought with our daughter.  Each week she gets a small allowance that she allocates (her choice) to four different envelopes (a) spend (b) save (c) invest (d) donate.)  
(2) I let her carry her money, pay the cashier, etc.  (seems small but the concept of money, profit, revenue, etc. is an elusive one when your 5)
(3) We discussed our marketing, how would we get people to purchase her lemonade.  The concept of competition, marketing, sales tactics ... you get the idea - some great concepts here. 
(4) During our selling I encouraged her with some ways she could interact with her customers (selling) and attracting the crowds (marketing)
(5) I made her manage her money and the transactions. Giving people change, managing the supplies, making more product... it was her business and I helped her keep track of the moving pieces.
(6) As we wrapped up the day's activities we had a lengthy sit-down where she counted her sales for that day.  We talked a bit about the concept of sales, etc and what that means. 
(7) We then payed her investment envelope back (the whopping $6.50) and were left with her profit.   We talked a bit about profit and the idea that in those 4 hours she made $15 in profit.  Normally her allowance is $5 per week.  The point she got very quickly was in a few hours of work she made "ALOT" (her words) more than what she normally does.  ...This was the best realization - she labored, she applied her ingenuity and her talents (ADDED VALUE) and then got to pocket the profit (GETTING A SHARE OF THE VALUE SHE CREATED). 

All in all - the lemonade stand was a total success and a really exciting time for me too.  To see entrepreneurship and these sometimes difficult concepts to come into clarity for my five year old daughter was truly awesome! 

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Our Road Trip to Tennessee

I just love road trips! This past weekend me and family packed up the truck and headed to the Tennessee mountains for a wedding of one of my wife's cousins. The wedding was held in a town called Monterey which is....a little way out there. Total drive time was approximately 5 hours and amazingly enough the kids did awesome on the way up and on the way back. The road trip was filled with all the cliché occurrences, "daddy are we there yet?", "I have to pee", "I'm bored", etc. AND I loved it all. We got to stop and check out beautiful scenery and reconnect as a family. In the day to day scramble that has become life in the 21st century there is something strangely and perplexingly wonderful about locking yourself in a car for five hours with people you absolutely adore.

I hope that I can go on more road trips to scenic places like this in the future. I've included some great pics of the event!

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On the road through the Tennessee mountains, North East of Chattanooga

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Near Dunlap, TN - really beautiful. Stopped to take this by the side of the road

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Old cabin on the property where the wedding was held

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My wife extremely geeked out. I can see Steve Jobs counting his money in the background

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The obligatory road-side pit stop. "Daddy I have to pee really, really bad!"

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Look out point stop on the way back to ATL

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No road trip is complete without Cracker Barrell and checkers

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My youngest enjoying the Cracker Barrell rocking chair

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Entrance to the where the wedding was held

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Kids playing in the gazebo at the place we stayed

PERSEVERANCE

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So each day when I wake up and get the day started I walk out of my bedroom and am greeted by this picture of President Abraham Lincoln.  My wife got it for me several years ago for Christmas after I commented how much I liked the theme of the print and the saying.  I generally am a bit cynical when it comes to these success oriented blurbs with catchy themes like "vision", "inspiration", and so on.  In fact, its enough sometimes to make you think you are locked in an old episode of "The Office", walking into another great day at Dunder Mifflin. 

"Office" comments aside, I really enjoyed this particular piece and its a great saying to wake up to each day.  This past year has been a real meat grinder on several fronts.  Business, life, etc.   Some has been exciting and inspirational, other moments have been stressed and lonely.  I was one of the unfortunate many that got caught flat footed in the real estate bubble.  What started off as a fun hobby with a few rental houses ballooned into quite a business with lots of houses and other side ventures (on top of my regular day gig by the way).  That was all great on the upswing but the new market reality has created quite a "shit" storm to be perfectly blunt. 

That being said, life is there to be lived, experienced, chances taken, rewards and penalties received.  I'm not happy about some of the current economic realities but the alternative to all of this is never trying, never putting yourself out there, never dreaming, achieving or pushing yourself.  I know that I'll get through this and be stronger, better and more experienced for it... but some days the struggle is taxing to say the least. 

So each day when I wake up I am greeted by this view of Honest Abe and the wonderful saying below.  For all of those out there enduring your own challenges in life, love and business - here is something to brighten your day.   To me, the quote is priceless and so true.  

"Perseverance"

He FAILED in business in '31.
He was DEFEATED for state legislature in '32.
He tried another business in '33. It FAILED.
His fiancee died in '35.
He had a nervous BREAKDOWN in '36.
In '43 he ran for Congress and was DEFEATED.
He tried again in '48 and was DEFEATED again.
He tried running for the Senate in '55. He LOST.
The next year he ran for Vice President and LOST.
In '59 he ran for the Senate again and was DEFEATED.
In 1860, the man who signed his name A. Lincoln,
was elected the 16th President of the United States.

"The difference between history's boldest accomplishments, 
and its most staggering failures is often, simply, 
the diligent will to persevere."

Summers of Fun

So this year is the first time in many where I had to let the family head to our yearly pilgrimage to Lake Owassa, New Jersey without me. The "forces" conspired against me by having the date of a big project "go-live" coinciding with the period of time that the family was heading North. Today my wife and kids headed along with their other cousins, aunts, uncle, etc. to the New Jersey State Fair which is held right down the street from where my in-laws have their property.

Its a magical time and I'm certainly bummed that I missed it this year. However, I've had lots of time for reflection and writing since the family has been out of the house and one thing I can say for sure is that Lake Owassa is a place where memories are made. It has a unique characteristic that is hard to describe. Maybe one of the unique characteristics it enjoys is that it is a place that harkens back to earlier times before always available Internet and mobile devices made us slaves to 24/7 productivity. Its one of the few places where you can go and pretty much escape, albeit for a short while, from work, stresses and the daily grind.

Lake Owassa has been a place where I proposed to my wife, where my oldest daughter caught her first fish, where my youngest (Carrigan) has decided she can be Michael Phelps in a kiddie pool and so many more and great memories. So this year although I'm not there with my great kids, wonderful wife, and awesome in-laws...I'm there in spirit and missing that great place where memories are made.


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ATL Community time to rally and help an Army family

My buddy, an army veteran, and a great all around leader in the ATL community is reaching out and asking for help to come to the aid of Patricia Roberts and her family. Patricia is the mother of Army Spc. Jamaal Addison who was killed during an ambush in March 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Addison was also the first Georgia casualty during the war. Spc. Addison left behind a son, also named Jamaal, that is now being cared for by Ms. Roberts. In a sad twist, on the same day that was identified in Dekalb County as Jamaal Addison day, Ms. Roberts was set to be evicted from her home. Thanks to a wave of public emotion she has been extended for a brief period of time but still will require community help over the next few months to help her and her family

Scott and pals, are pooling resources through his VetLoop charity and looking for folks that can help a worthy cause. See the full write-up below on Scott's blog. Simple to say, we need help. If you can pitch in or know of others who have the resources to help out let us know. Most of all, let us all remember to give thanks each day to live in this great land of opportunity and freedom and enjoy the lives we do thanks to the great men and women, like Spc. Addison, that help protect it.

http://www.scottburkett.com/index.php/social-causes/2010-07-31/community-call...


God bless you and keep you safe Spc. Addison

Rocket Shooting...

Had a great Father's Day yesterday with the family. We had our 2nd attempt for launching the rocket, dubbed APOLLO, we built the previous weekend. Our 1st attempt at the park in seemingly 100 degree weather ended in a verifiable melt-down. CNN wasn't on hand to view the aborted attempt but rest assured it was filled with all kinds of drama that only four year olds can manifest. Our entire mission control team was on hand, the 4 year old played the role of Gene Kranz (see her in pink in pictures included), I played Gene Kranz dutiful assistant. My wife did an awesome job of representing the press, my father did a great job playing the role of Walter Kronkite, my mom and our youngest, Carrigan, played the role of gawking space nerds minus the telescopes. On a minor note, my Dad got slightly out of character when the rocket took off, you hear him in the background going "Holy Crap!" LOL (check out movie).

All-in-all a neat experience that brought me back to my childhood days in scouting and being in love with flight, rockets, and things that emit lots of fire and smoke. For my oldest daughter, it was a great way for her to see her creation come to life. From cutting the balsa wood, to sanding down the fins and assembling the parachute, she did a wonderful job and is already asking me when we can build the next "bigger" rocket.

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Aerodynamic Anomaly ..

I had to show this to others. I was traveling around Atlanta not too long ago and came across this car on the highway. I was amazed to learn that this particular Chevy has overcome fundamental laws of physics. Nasa contacted me some time later to learn about this particular anomaly that was experienced on I-285 as they thought it might have relevance for future rocket shoots. In case you're wondering that's sarcasm and ... take a look at the decals, I think you'll figure it out.

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