A salesman himself, Dad taught us to be little entrepreneurs. When as a child I wanted a blue Schwinn bicycle that I was barely big enough to straddle, he replied, “I will give you half and help you earn the other half.”
As an electrical engineer he was able to buy extension cords and holiday lights at wholesale. Equipped with this merchandise I went door to door. With my best friend I also sold garden seeds and cupcake-sized pieces of wax impregnated with chemicals that produced colorful flames in the fireplace. Our invention, they were called “color-ons.”
I became quite accomplished at demonstrating the merits of these objects. For example, I was proud that the extension cord outlet was made of a material that wasn’t brittle like many then available. Standing on a front porch, I would pound it against some handy surface to show its resilience. Once when I knocked it against the door frame, a piece of enamel fell off, but the neighbors overlooked minor damage in the interests of helping Roy’s son and, I thought, obtaining a product that was demonstrably superior.
In short, I became a pest. But a pest regarded as tolerable, even admirable.
This training had a lasting effect on some of the siblings. As a grown-up, my brother started a manufacturing business. One of our sisters worked as a manager. However, the other became a teacher in an innovative process, and I worked for individual clients, as a “book creation coach.” But as a child I did earn enough money as a little businessman to buy half of my bike. I guess the main lesson was inventing an appropriate and successful economic role for yourself.