I read an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Saturday about a 51 year old guy named David Tough. He drives an ice-cream truck for roughly 10 hours a day. He moved out here with his mother because she wanted to be closer to his sister.
He earns 40 percent of what he sells. On good days he has made about $250. But on the bad days, which seems to have occurred more than he would like, he takes in less than $100 (before taxes). In those cases, “You’ve just got to keep a cheery smile and a brave outlook.” Oh and he also has to take a cut out of his pay for use of the van.
He has a high school diploma but never attended college. As he stated: “The people who go to college with a plan are the people who should go. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t like any of my (high school) junior- and senior-level courses.”
I know a lot of people that went to college, received advanced degrees and still don’t have a plan. A lot of people are just trying to figure things out as they go. Some of us are lucky enough to have a plan. Sometimes those plans work out and other times they don’t. Out of our plans or lack of, opportunities arise. They could be in the form of an entry level job at a media firm, a high salaried director of HR position at a Fortune 500, a speaking gig at a high profile event. They could come when we are 25 or 40. Those opportunities are the ones that could either decide what we do for the rest of our lives, or allow us to decide when and where we do what we do at the time in which we choose.
Or some opportunities could come in the form of a job in Cincinnati, while living with your mom, working 10 hours a day, being lucky enough to make $100 a day - keeping a cheery smile and a brave outlook.
Side Note: I wrote this article around 1 am Sunday Morning. The enquirer story was on Saturday. I was literally and physically moved by it. So much that I thought, when I see an Ice cream truck go around my block I will do my best to take my son and myself out to get something from the truck. Well, one truck came by tonight, about 8:44pm on Sunday. Guess what? The guy driving the truck was from the article. God works in mysterious ways.
Benjamin McCall is an HR practitioner with specializations in Business Strategy, P&L;, Change Management, OD, and Learning & Development. His passion for aligning the functions of HR with the strategies of business is evident through this blog where you will find his thoughts on the complexity of business and humanity around management, people, leadership, networking and his love for family and golf!
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