A few days ago, I went to pick up my kids from school (one of the benefits of not having a “job”).  After we got home, they had the brilliant idea of setting up a lemonade stand in front of our house by the road to make some extra money.  (I guess they get their entrepreneurship from me.) To me, this did not sound like the best idea since we live near the end of a small private road without much traffic at all.  However, I figured I would let them do it so they learn a little bit about business and “location, location, location”.  They would probably just sit there for an hour or two, drink the lemonade themselsves, have no customers, and that would be that.  I would teach them a little bit about business and they would learn from the experience and never set up a lemonade stand in front of our home again.  Boy, was I wrong.

Here’s what happened………

My kids got out their little folding table and a couple of chairs and set them right next to the road.  They taped some posterboard to the front of the table with a sign that said “Lemonade”.  They had “Mommy” make a pitcher of lemonade and a bucket of ice.  They carefully carried the lemonade and ice to the table and set it up nicely.  They even took some of Mommy’s coffee cups (with lids of course) and had them ready to go.

While I thought they would charge 10 or 20 cents for a cup of lemonade, to my shock, they were charging $2.00 PER CUP!  I couldn’t believe it and I have no idea where they came up with that price.  (No one would buy it at that price, would they?)

Well, it turned out that one of our neighbors a couple of houses down had a party going on in their back yard.  One of the “party attendees” meandered over to the lemonade stand.  He said, “I like to support our local businesses.” and followed with “How much for a glass of lemonade?”  My kids said “$2.00″.  (I was expecting a gasp or some sort of comment about how expensive it was or how it was 10 cents when they were young.)  He simply said, “I’ll take 3 cups.”  He even left a tip in the cup basket.

While I was amazed, my kids faces lit up with excitement as they landed their first sale and saw how quickly they could make money.  Well, this must have energized their little behinds because immediately following this influx of cash, our middle child hops on his bike and starts riding up and down the street proclaiming at the top of his lungs, “Lemonade, two dollars!”,  “Lemonade, two dollars!”.

At this point, our little 3 year old decided to join in and he got on his tricycle peddling as fast as his little feet could go.  Up and down the street he went following his bigger brother.  The bigger brothers taped another leonade sign on the front of the tricycle.  Now, their entire advertising and marketing staff was in full swing.

Shortly after, a woman drove by and also asked to buy a cup of lemonade.  So now, they had made 4 sales all within a time span of about 30 minutes.  I started realizing that they were beginning to understand business and how to make money.  I was getting concerned that they would not be interested in doing their chores anymore or working extra jobs around the house for money when they could quickly sell some lemonade without much physical effort and could make more money in a shorter amount of time.  We’ll see what happens…….

Now, to the point of this story…….

I was right their with my kids to experience this once in a lifetime event.  It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when the lemonade stand opened.  I enjoyed every moment watching the different emotions flood their tender impressionable minds.  I was there for their first lemonade stand.  There will never again be a “first” lemonade stand for them.  I got to experience it first hand because I do not have to be at a job working all day just to get home to see them for an hour or two and being exhausted from working all day.  I was able to be there with and for my kids.  Do you get to experience the lives of your kids?  Are you working all the time and missing out on your family?  Will you have regrets 10 or 20 years from now when your kids are grown and out of the house?  Think about what is really important……

The path your life takes is your choice.  You can choose to work for someone else and miss out on a lot of life experiences or you can take control of your own destiny and enjoy life to it’s fullest.

- Hill