The Golden Wish

    As a teen I hung out at an art gallery run by an older hippie chick and an intriguing younger lady. They pushed a variety of stuff from oil paintings to personal works to serving teas or art or yoga classes. One day I asked the older hippie chick about the name.She told me it came from Persian literature and stated that the silver wish was for riches and the golden wish was for happiness.
    In my business I have picked a location that is more given to repeat business and tired folks passing by rather than high foot traffic and and bigger money. I did this because my choice is to enjoy rather than just profit because of my own physical handicaps. Has anyone else found their golden wish by profiting less but enjoying more what they do?
   This is my third year in this spot and overall I should profit rather than break even for the first time. But by staying here I limited my maximum return and instead slowly built a clientele I know by their first names. I know other vendors who do long hours like I do but many of them dread opening day and 7 day schedules. At my slower pace I'm glad to be back.
    Just asking for your thoughts and comments...
   

Setting up my cart has been my golden wish.  I spent 16 years in the computer business and hated it for 15 of those years.  I always wanted to be back in the restaurant industry, but didn't want to jump in and jeopardize my family and our lifestyle.  I went thru 2 layoffs in the past 2 years and decided to make the change.  This is what I have wanted and hopefully I will be successful at it.  And I wish you the same!

another hippy kid. hey kiddo. good to see you.

honey, i'm sorry i didn't handle your question with an answer. and kiddo, please don't be offended if i call you "kiddo" or "little sister" because back in they day, that was the highest form of compliment. it didn't mean you are smaller, it meant "i love you".

so here you are asking us. if yoou are gonna ask us if you should sell hot dogs i think we'll tell you it's about so-so. if you are gonna tell us you love this hippy-chick, kid, do not waste another second and don't wait for approval.

because even if it is the worst idea in the world, you will be the first person to find out about it and by Gods i can tell you kid, it is way, way worse to regret what you have done than what you have not.

if on the other hand you feel like this person is becoming jelous or selfish or over-dominant, don't walk, run.

because who is more important than you honey?

nobody. nobody in this whole world. you are numero uno.

I'd suggest revisting the hippie chick to view the results of following her gold and silver wish theory.

RubyRose


I'd suggest revisting the hippie chick to view the results of following her gold and silver wish theory.

I think that's pretty good advice RR.  Most of the people I have known who follow the Golden Wish concept usually fall into one of four categories:

1.  They followed the Silver Wish, made a lot of money, then they followed the Golden Wish.

2.  They followed the Golden Wish because someone who followed the Silver Wish subsidized them.

3.  They followed the Golden Wish until they figured out that they couldn't support themselves and decided they better look into that Silver Wish idea.

4.  They followed the Golden Wish and jobbed the system to get on the dole.  (I guess you can say this is a variant of #2).

There is no reason why someone can't follow both the Golden and Silver Wishes.  It's much easier to enjoy the Silver Wish when the Golden Wish has taken worry out of the formula.

I don't know what catnhatnh defines as "breakeven", but something in his past  relating to silver must have allowed him to survive during his three year breakeven period.

I guess I'm enjoying my Golden Wish now, but I sure dug up a ton of rocks for every ounce of silver I made to put me in a position to enjoy my Golden Wish.

Most people measure the success of their business by their bank account. I like your idea a lot better. Its hard to go into a business not trying to be as successful as you can everyday. The only way I could see traveling the lesser path of success is to be wealthy and not worry about the amount of sales. The other way is to bring 50 dogs and when your sold out you go home. Its hard to judge, if the busy streets are having a down turn in sales I would figure the lesser traveled roads are dead. You can control the pace of business only if you don't have to may people counting on your success.............Good luck.......Bill

I believe in Tom T. Hall's 4 important things in life:

1.  Older Whiskey
2.  Younger Women
3.  Faster Horses
4.  More Money

LOL

Mike S.

jman's post nearly killed me for lols. but in a way it's kind of serious.

since i was a kid i have been almost obsessed by precious metals. it must be the white blood in me because indians don't really give a crap about the stuff. but the stuff has just found it's way into my pockets for years and now i got a ton of the stuff. well not really a ton but more than i can carry. so if you were to look at me you would basically see this biker wasteoid and think i got nothing.

then people look into my portfolio and all the sudden they think "hey this guys is smart". but in reality, i ain't all that smart. i just thought metal was neat. and i been alive long enough to where are one point, people were practically throwing the stuff away. so i got into gold, what, i think the stuff was going for like $360 an ounce. and when my patriarchal grandpa died, he left us all this silver and NOBODY ELSE WANTED IT. they were like "we're gonna sell it" and i said like hells you are.

oh man everybody was all over the native artifacts, they all wanted the bear skin jacket and the buffalo robes. they just didn't see the metal as being a Wampum. so from my patrilineal grandparents i got a cast-iron skillet and a poop-load of metal. and i got a rifle but we had tons of those already. but i got grand-pappy's black-powder deer rifle.

because again, nobody though anything of it. they thought it was a hunk of junk. know what that puppy is worth today? and i gathered up all the metal i could get my hands on because grandpappy had held it with his own hands. how did i know it would ever be so enumerated with numerical value?

now the gold i actually did sell, but i did it to consolidate my position. there was too much of the stuff and it looked disorderly to me so i moved it into Kruger-rands. but that was just dumb luck. i guess i sold high and since i really don't care about money, the money just sat in my account until one day i met a guy who wanted to liquidate and he did me a favor. so i got a handful of brillian, uncirculated Krugers.

they really are quite pretty to look at. they really are quite fun to hold in your hand. but what i find people really like is handling one of those 100 Oz. bars of silver. their eyes light up and you can see that wasichu ghost in them because white people get jelous over money and kill each other.

and don't let me make you think i'm any better than you are because i'm mostly white. i just honestly feel like it's that little bit of indian in me that saves me. for i really have no desire for wealth. i don't want a big house because it will be too hard to keep clean and i have already had fast motorcycles and horses and pretty women. i have even had what they told me was the finest Peruvian flake coicane. i thought the coicane was horrible and pretty women are a major source of trouble in this world. the best part was the fast motorcycles and a good horse, why, that is wealth.

and i know i joke about drug use but it's a really major problem on the reservations. people without hope. and there is this one drug that is so punishing, so toxic. crystal meth. i really don't understand what it is about that stuff but everybody i have met who did it, their lives were so completely and totally destroyed. and i have heard every excuse in the book. "i'm just dipping bro, i got it under control". yeah right. should i order up the coffin now?

indians used to be the proudest people on the planet. look at us now. we're a bunch of screwed up loosers. want to know how what i am saying to you is true? by the world's definition i am rich. my own kids don't even want to learn their native Chippewa language.

and that hurts. because they are such perfect indo-american kids. their skin is the most lovely color orange. my kids ain't red and they ain't white, they are orange. and their hair ain't black like most indians. they got almost ecactly the same hair color i did. you kind of have to look at my daugther to see how her features are "distincly meso-American".

i keep looking at her because i can't see her mom in her atall. but that's ok because i ain't their natural father. their real father is a truly freaking fearsome Wabbanaki warrior. so in truth, i don't even know who's kids i'm raising. our family tree is going to look exactly like the crayon drawing on your refridgerator. a hopeless tangle of circles.

so i can tell you how to make money. i can't tell you what to do with it.

i can tell you how to be a warrior and defeat your enemies but i'm not sure i'd be doing you a favor. because violence and money have to be the two most unreliable things in this world as far as getting what you want.