I’ve been a sales rep for almost nine years, and after one particularly disappointing day, I began to think about how I got myself into this crazy profession. But the funny thing is it never dawned on me until that moment that perhaps this was something I had a knack for long before I was old enough to carry a business card.

They say that everything you need to know in life you learn in kindergarten. I suppose that includes the playground. I realize now that perhaps my career in “outside” sales actually began in grade school on the playground. I didn’t know it then but I was a bit of a budding entrepreneur at the ripe old age of 11. Not only was I playing hopscotch and chasing boys at recess, but I was also selling macramé bracelets to my sixth-grade classmates. I was the manufacturer and sales rep — no middleman. It seemed to work well back then. Raw materials were free (a roll of string from the kitchen junk drawer) and demand was high with no overhead — pure profit. Humble beginnings and no stress, not so shabby in hindsight.

Now I rely on a manufacturer who’s located in Pakistan. I’m the middleman. And the cost of raw materials is skyrocketing — not to mention shipping costs. Heck, my bracelets travelled in my coat pocket. I handled marketing too. I wore an actual sample of the product so prospective customers could see the beauty and quality of what they were buying. I was customer service — taking careful measurements of my girlfriend’s wrists — and worked after school in the plant (the kitchen table) making my product. I was in charge of shipping (getting to school without losing a bracelet along the way) and distribution (remembering whose bracelet was whose) as well as customer satisfaction (making sure the bracelets fit). I determined what the market would pay for my product (50 cents, enough to buy two candy bars!) and was the credit department collecting payment.

I don’t remember that my business lasted all that long, but I know I probably thought it was pretty cool to be able to sell something that people wanted. Now I walk through stores at the mall and can’t believe what I see in the jewelry isle. Macramé bracelets! I smile and think to myself how ironic that I used to make and sell those too. I may have added beads as time went on just to stay current. But my product had a shelf life or more than likely I got tired of making them. Either way, I look back at that time and am a teeny bit proud of myself for having an idea, taking the initiative, and figuring out a way to make a little extra money.

Some things don’t change. I’m still out on the playground — it’s just so much more vast than when I was 11. I continue to get a charge out of figuring out how to get someone to want something I have — and be willing to pay for it — it’s just harder to get anyone’s attention. Funny thing too — I still wear a bracelet that I never take off. It’s not made of string though. I’ve graduated to sterling silver, and I didn’t make it, of course. Instead of beads this one’s embellished with words of inspiration.  Mine’s inscribed with the “Serenity Prayer.”  If you don’t know it, it goes like this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." 

Words to live by whether I’m selling “stuff” or not. Either way, this simple bracelet still reminds me of the 11-year-old who found that finding a way to sell something to someone could be an interesting way to make a little money, and I guess in some ways it still is.