The Moral of the Laramie Story
If you remember, last week we left off with:
"But there was always something very disturbing behind the
barber shop that I had to step over, very disturbing indeed."
This letter is especially important as it summarizes the lessons
for you as an entrepreneur from chapters 18 through 21.
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And now let's continue:
"The Moral of the Laramie Story"
Yes, I found this very disturbing, and honestly, it scared me.
If it was the first part of the month there would be several
drunk men passed out in the back and I would have to step over
them to get to the trash cans.
The reason for this was that on the first of every month the
government sent money to all the residents on the Crow
reservation 25 miles north of Sheridan. We were the closest town
so they would come to spend their money in our stores and bars.
Many of the residents for the Crow reservation would drink in
the bars and then pass out on the sidewalks and the streets.
Fortunately traffic was slow and if one person were to fall in
the street, some kind soul would pick them up and put them on
the sidewalk.
This activity seemed to end about 15 years later, although I am
not sure why.
I was always a little nervous about stepping over our inebriated
neighbors from the north. Occasionally one would wake up and
snort and I would drop the trash can and run back into the
barbershop.
The Mission barbershop was next to the Mission Lounge. The Crow
seldom went into that bar but the cowboys frequented it. Most
cowboys around Sheridan felt they were a better class than the
town folk and would not even speak to us half the time. In the
Mission bar they would get into fights with town folk and even
each other, throwing bodies and chairs at the wall. I could hear
them slamming as the wall of the barbershop shared the wall of
the Mission Bar.
Everyone liked my father it seemed. He always did good work, was
consistent, persistent, and honest. When he worked he would hum
or sometimes whistle as if he was truly enjoying his labor.
I would sometimes wonder why Laramie had not kept all the other
contracts he had been fired from. My father kept these few
contracts for years and years to come. It did not seem that much
harder.
I also wondered why we did not have all the money that Laramie
had earned for the time he was in our town. It seemed Laramie
was a tycoon, or at least he appeared to be one.
The differences was that although my father did have some
entrepreneurial spirit, he was not the one that acquired the
contracts. Laramie had done that and handed them to my father.
On the other hand Laramie had lots of entrepreneurial gifts and
could generate as many contracts as he wanted, but he lacked the
self-discipline to maintain those contracts and watch his money.
I started to observe that to be successful you would need a
combination of Laramie and my father. The best qualities to
combine were:
1. Willingness to risk it all to start your own business.
(Laramie) 2. A positive attitude to go get it done. (Laramie and
Dad) 3. An eye to see opportunity . (Laramie) 4. The guts to
grab the opportunity. (Laramie) 5. Persistence to get the
opportunity. (Laramie) 6. Persistence to perform the duties you
promised. (Dad) 7. Known to be honest and full of integrity.
(Dad) 8. Provide consistent service. (Dad) 9. A good attitude
while performing your duties. (Laramie and Dad)
My family learned to depend on the income from these barbershops
as my father made little money at his full time job at the local
Boyds supermarket. The income had become very important to us.
But boy oh boy, something big was about to happen to really
upset the smooth operation of our cleaning business. Something I
have never forgotten.
You can read all the chapters of "How To Be an Entrepreneur" by
going to http://salessuccessmagazin
e.com. These stories are copyrighted by Timothy L. Drobnick
Sr. 1995 thru 2005. Any person using this article must publish
it without modification and include authors bio and links.