Meaningful Returns

I grew up in a very small town, and at the age of 7 I began selling the local newspaper to the businesses that surrounded the central courthouse. Many of my first financial lessons were learned in the 5 or 6 years I carried on this venture, but Generosity is probably the greatest.

Like many small Southern towns, there were two barber shops in Carthage: a black one and a white one. Though I got my hair cut in the white one, I frequented both as a seller of papers, and both were by far the most generous clients I had.

At that time The Pilot (this was the name of the local newspaper) sold for 50 cents, and I was able to purchase them for 30 cents, netting a profit of 20 cents for each paper I sold. But that was assuming the purchaser paid face value for the paper. There were a few regular clients that gave me more than face value for the paper and asked for no change. The men in those barber shops never paid face value for a paper. Sometimes a dollar, sometimes two dollars, and around the holidays, often five or ten dollars.

There are times when being the full version of yourself–a human with a unique and beautiful set of gifts and abilities and personality–means completely suspending all semblance of financial logic. The two barbers got this, and I have never forgotten it. The relatively small acts of kindness they paid me two days a week for several years are engrained in my brain and my heart as prime examples of how we ought to be.