Rebirth of Self Worth

As summer approaches in the Northern Hemisphere and the coronavirus diminishes (We hope.), neighborhoods can expect to witness blocks and blocks of yard sales and mini-entertainment venues. Sheltering in place is providing an opportunity to examine the contents of closets, cabinets and drawers; to rediscover old family recipes; practice musical instruments, dance moves and baton twirling; paint a picture; knit and build a bird house or a bookcase out of wood. Also, a backyard garden or community plot can lead to sales of flowers and produce, such as tomatoes and lettuce.

     With neighbors walking from yard to yard in the sun, hungry shoppers will need grilled hot dogs besides lemonade. Custom sunscreening can join facepainting at a "service station." And entertainers can set up lawn chairs and sell tickets to 15-minute shows of magic, sock puppets, dance, and band concerts performed in costumes.

     At yard sales, kids learn to talk to customers, negotiate prices, make change, keep an eye on the cash box and look out for shoplifters.  Shows offer children a wonderful chance to organize, price and prepare signs for their performances.

     When my friend's 7-year-old saw her making a to-do-list before beginning her virtual workday at home, he wanted one too. As a result, he makes his own bed, sorts his wash by white and colored, puts all toys away except the one he is playing with, reads a book to his little sister, brushes the dog, writes out or draws what he would like for lunch, watches a certain TV program at 9 am, dusts the living room and helps unload the dishwasher.

     I see that the Whirlpool home appliance manufacturer, according to trendwatching.com,  sponsors #ChoreClub to give parents ideas for engaging children ages 2-11 in life skills as well as
 learning activities. Pairing socks becomes a matching game, cutting a pizza teaches fractions and learning Spanish involves a scavenger hunt for household products that print directions in two languages.

     Between running yard sales and entertainments and mastering essential adult skills, growing up in the COVID-19 pandemic might not be so bad for kids (and parents).

Master the Gig Economy

Since the future of work is not what it was in the past, no one is likely to work for the same company 45 years and then retire with a pension. One way to guaranty a future income is to identify as many money-making options as possible, not only for your self, but for all family members. You've seen babies and dogs in commercials, right? In Rise and Grind, "Shark Tank" TV star, Daymond John, lists ways he made money as a kid by being the first out of the house to shovel snow for neighbors and by fixing and selling bikes and toys people threw away. Kid also hold their own garage sales in conjunction with lemonade stands these days.

     The "gig economy," as John Hope Bryant defines it in his new book, The Memo, "is a labor market characterized by short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs." He adds, "Always be on the lookout for opportunities to create your own economy.... Every big business was once a small business."

Bryant gives some useful examples of short-term ways to make money:

• Drive for Uber or Lyft
• Rent your camper, powerboat, condo
• Deliver food
• Service computers, build websites
• Sell craft items on Etsy (I know a woman who went from scrapbooking for the family to using her skills to create the unique greeting cards she sells without a middleman at art fairs, holiday marts, and all summer at farmers' markets.)

I would add:

• Sell Avon, Amway, insurance, or other products at Tupperware-type parties, if you have a wide circle of relatives and friends
• Provide child care and pet care
• Become a personal trainer
• Form a "garage band" or write a stand-up comedy routine you can book at local clubs and parties
• Sell off unused and out-grown collections of dolls, LEGO sets, Civil War re-enactor garb, cookbooks, vinyl records, etc. on eBay or at a well-organized and advertised yard sale. (I know a women who made $700 by hanging clothes by size on racks and carefully pricing each item)
• Write and pitch freelance articles.
• Offer professional services, if you are an attorney, notary, CPA at tax time
• Tutor students in your best subjects

School yourself

Working in any type of job in a restaurant, retail store, warehouse, or phone bank, there are things to learn about hiring, firing, sales, promotion, taxes, cleaning, dealing with busy and slow periods, forms, handling complaints, etc. that you could use if you become an entrepreneur and/or if you'd like to sell services to these businesses. While one of my friends was working at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, she saw companies having their labels rejected for a variety of reasons. She quit and went into business for herself advising food companies how to make the modifications they needed to meet government regulations.

     For any business financing you might need, check out crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and Quirky. Also compare the interest and perks of various credit cards. (In his book, Bryant advises how to improve a credit score to get the lowest interest rate.)

     Study where you should move to find the best chance of success. Daymond John writes Vermont, Minnesota, Delaware, New Jersey, and Connecticut offer the best opportunities for working moms, according to WalletHub.

     Increase the skills you can offer by learning from YouTube video instructions and visiting the nonfiction section at the library. Remember how one of the women in the movie, Hidden Figures, used a library book to teach herself how to write a computer language. And I understand, when Harrison Ford was an unemployed actor, he taught himself carpentry from a library book.

     Learn all you can at a franchising show.

Get more out of college 

Don't just go to classes and make friends, unless the latter become your future business partners.

• Get experience being the travel manager for a sport, the band, the debate team. Such experience can lead to a gig as travel manager for a political campaign or rock band.
• Start as a DJ at the school's radio station before picking up gigs as a DJ at clubs
• Offer dance classes at sororities, like Maverick owner, Mark Cuban, did, when he was in college
• On an overseas semester, make contacts. You might find a company you want to work for after you graduate. (I know some students who went back to Africa to work for a travel adventure company where they lead hikes up Mt. Kilimanjaro and sun on the beach in Zanzibar.). Or, when you see a product that isn't sold in your home country, you could become an importer. Interested in movie making?  You might like to work for the film studio in Mauritius.
• Learn to build robots.
• Take a drawing class and create your own cartoon character before signing up for a comics class and sending samples to Marvel and The New Yorker
• Start combining subjects like biology and chemistry, medicine and religion, or economics and behavioral psychology like Richard Thaler did, when he just became a Nobel Prize winner.
• Scour departments for internships and ask professors if they know of any 
• Study literature to find English legends, German fairy tales, and Greek myths you can borrow for your own novels
• Write sketches and scenes for drama students and student reviews
• Study history to find inspiration for your own Hamilton or a Black Panther and warrior women who resemble the African warrior king, Shaka Zulu, and the female bodyguards of Muammar al-Qaddafi

Learn about operations and trends

Mingle with a purpose at rock concerts, motor car racing events, and football games. Shop with an eye to differences between discount stores, specialty boutiques, and pop up retailers at resorts and decide which is the best fit for the items you want to sell. Study the ways apartments are advertised and try your hand at real estate sales. Start to find opportunity everywhere you are.

     

   

   

Let's Repurpose Our Mindsets

When I read an article titled, "How to Mine Cobalt Without Going to Congo," I learned Canadian scientists have figured out how to produce the cobalt (and lithium) needed to power electric cars from batteries that fail quality control tests and now end up in hazardous-waste dumps, buried in the ground, or giving off toxic emissions as they burn. When as many as 118 million electric cars take the road in 2030, more batteries will stop working. That means more rare metals can be recycled from old batteries to produce replacements.

The idea of recycling cobalt from worn out electric car batteries started me thinking about how many examples of repurposing I've become aware of lately. It reminded me of how I started noticing how many people wore glasses after I began wearing them in fifth grade.

In the fashion industry, designer Stella McCarthy endorsed the MacArthur Foundation's report that urged increasing the less than 1% of material now made from the used clothing and textiles that end up in landfills. In the July, 2018 issue of VOGUE, eco-conscious model, Gisele, cites the statistic that "between eight and thirteen million tons of clothing ends up in landfills every year."  Already, women in India turn their old saris into quilts. A young designer I know began her path to a career by using the material from her mother's worn hijabs.

On "American Pickers," the TV hosts travel through the U.S. looking for parts to rebuild old cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. They also come across pharmacy cabinets, industrial lamps, moldings, signs, and award trophies that can be used in new ways and as decorative objects in homes and restaurants. When you think about it, eBay made a big business out of giving used items a new purpose in life the way yard sales and thrift stores do on a smaller scale.

I guess I was subconsciously trying out a new repurpose mindset when I read about the "convolute" that ILC (formerly Playtex) designed to enable astronauts to move their arms, legs, and hands while wearing an airtight, protective spacesuit on the moon. To me, the flexible, but somewhat rigid, ribbed rubber and dacron "convolute" looked like a sleeve that could be repurposed to stabilize a person's shaking or weak arms and legs and better enable him or her to hold items and walk.

As Christmas approaches, I'm reminded that the stable in the creche scene at our church was made as an Eagle Scout project by a young man who found the wood in an old barn a farmer was about to burn.

What items have you repurposed? (Also see the earlier post, "Dump the Dump.")