Flat Broke (9 page)

12

The Successful Person Knows His Limits

I
didn’t want to get out of bed the next morning. I lay there and thought.

Okay, I was down, but I still had the management positions with Sarah and Katie and a notebook full of ideas. Still … I was getting a little panicky. I just had to get some new ideas hatched.

I texted JonPaul and Sam: “Emergency meeting @ HQ l8er 2day. Discuss team status.”

After school, I was pacing back and forth, or what passes for pacing in a broom closet, waiting for them to arrive.

My hopes and dreams and plans for the rest of my life hinged on the prompt rebuilding of Kevin L. Spencer Corporation. V.2.0, of course.

They finally arrived, and I pulled them into the office.

I struggled to shut the closet door, then remembered that the frame was warped and the door didn’t shut all the way, which was why Buzz didn’t use the space.

A pep talk was in order. I had to instill confidence in them. They were depending on me. I had to set a good example. Everyone would naturally look to me for guidance.

JonPaul leaned against the wall, picking raisins out of an oatmeal cookie. Sam was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Sam?”

“Down here,” came a tiny voice.

I crouched down and saw her hunched under the desk with a thermos balanced on one knee and a plastic bag of grapes in her hand.

“Look, Sam, just because we’re faced with unexpected challenges is no reason to hide under the desk.”

“She’s not hiding,” JonPaul pointed out. “There’s no room with the door even half shut.”

“Oh. Well. I have a plan for reorganization and refocus,” I announced in a voice that sounded too high and nervous to be mine. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “Things haven’t quite worked out, so I’m advancing in a new direction. Hence my New Plan. My Better Plan.”

“Sam and I have been talking, and we think your goose is cooked,” Jon Paul said. He might have sounded mean, but he’s not like that. Still, that’s not the kind of thing a guy wants to hear.

“No, wait, don’t make up your mind too fast,” I told him. “Hear me out.”

“Buddy, I want to be supportive, I really do, but your whole moneymaking thing is a bad idea.”

“I just need to reevaluate.”

“Look, Kev: I hate to let you down, but Sam and I aren’t going to be able to keep working for you.”

This blatant act of insubordination would go in their personnel records! I hoped they knew we’d be discussing
this
at their annual reviews.

“I’mreallysorryKev,” came Sam’s voice from under the desk, “but … umph, um, you guys? Some help, please, I’mkindofwedgedunderneathhereandIcan’tfeelmylegs.”

We helped Sam crawl out from under the desk and held her up until the pins and needles went away.

“We’re just not cut out to work with a mogul,” JonPaul said.

“Wetalkedaboutitandweagreedthatwe’renotrightforyourcompany,” Sam said. “It’s not you, it’s us.”

Wow. I’d never even had a girlfriend and yet I was getting dumped with the oldest line in the book.

I couldn’t think of a single reason they should stay with me. That wasn’t like me; usually I can come up with twenty good reasons to do anything.

Sam hugged me and JonPaul punched my arm before they left. I knew they cared. But I crossed them off my list of people I was talking to.

Sure, they weren’t supposed to have my vision or bravery, but they were supposed to be loyal and supportive. They were supposed to follow my lead for a little longer than a week.

I slunk home to go back to bed and sleep the rest of the week away.

Instead, I found Katie Knowles, Sarah and her boyfriend, Doug, at the kitchen table.

“I’m terminating our working agreement, Kev,” Sarah said. “Doug here is going to handle the bookings. He charges less than you do. And the whole thing about me paying you part of my earnings because you suggested I charge a fee is ridiculous. I’ve paid you enough already.”

When I opened my mouth, she held up a hand. “You’re not in a position to argue. Be smart enough to know when you’re ahead and let it go.” Doug nodded and patted the laptop in front of him.

I looked over at Katie. “You too?”

She nodded. Guess she still wasn’t speaking to me.

“Doug,” Sarah informed me, “is also going to be doing Katie’s tutoring appointments, since he knows the computer system already.”

They got up and left the kitchen. I heard them go into our/Sarah’s bathroom. Sarah was saying, “Let me show you how to highlight your cheekbones.”

Well, I should consider myself lucky to be rid of them. I was better off. No dead weight. Now I could launch the Kevin L. Spencer Corporation without any friends and family holding me back.

Things looked bad. But I knew I would have to find a way to make this my finest hour. Somehow, I’d have to dig down deep to rally in an admirable manner that spoke to the quality of my character and the unquenchable strength of my dream. Or however businesspeople put it.

And then they’d all be sorry they’d turned on me.

Great men are never appreciated in their time. I’d read that, but now I was living it. It sounded kind of cool, but it felt kind of crummy.

13

The Successful Person Is Steadfast in the Face of Disaster, Can Cope with Multiple Crises at One Time and Learns from His Mistakes

I
went back to my room and looked at my piles of military history and business books on the floor for new ideas about what to do next.

Nah. I needed something stronger than a book.

I needed my parents.

I found them reading in the family room.

“Hey, Kev, how are you?” Mom asked.

“Abysmal.”

“When last I checked, ‘fine’ was still the standard answer,” Dad joked.

“Not in my world.”

I told them what had happened: how all my dreams had crashed, how I never wanted to talk to JonPaul and Sam and Sarah and Katie again and how the feeling was probably mutual.

“I’ll give you this much: when you mess up, it’s always in a big way,” Dad said.

“Everything sounded like such a good idea.”

“Everything always does, hon.” Mom smiled.

“Why do things like this happen to me?”

My mother and father looked at each other. Each clearly hoping the other had a good answer.

“Forget I asked. I know why things like this always happen to me: I make them happen.”

“Well, son, you’re never boring. No one could ever say you were a dull person. And that counts for a lot.”

“How do I turn things around?”

My mother and father looked at each other. Each clearly hoping I’d come up with the answer myself.

I sighed.

“I’m going to have to apologize again, aren’t I? Go around undoing the bad things and making things right again, aren’t I?”

“Well, yes,” Dad said. “But look at the bright side: you’ve done it before and it’s bound to be easier the second time around.”

“There’s no other way?”

“Not that I know of,” Mom said.

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

“Getting out of trouble is a whole lot more of a hassle than staying out of trouble,” Dad said.

“I’m starting to figure that out.”

I wasn’t ready to make the amends tour again just yet, and I was half-hoping there was an easier way out of this predicament. So I did what had seemed to make sense the last time I’d been in a jam: I went to see Markie.

He’d take my mind off things. He always does. There’s no way Markie has any idea what’s going on, and he won’t remind me what a lousy, greedy person I’ve been lately.

“Hey, Dutchdeefuddy,” Markie called from his swing set as I walked to his backyard.
“S-O-R-R-Y. Sorry.”

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“What did you just say?”

“Wanna play Sorry?”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“No, Sorry is a great game. And it’s easy, too.”

We’ll see about that, Markie, we’ll just see about that.

14

The Successful Person Is Capable of Moving On from Multifaceted Calamities with Humor and Grace

I
apologized to Sam and JonPaul for taking advantage of them with the munchies situation. They were really happy when I busted out the money we’d earned and split it into three even shares rather than paying them hourly wages. It was only fair: we were a team.

I took freshly baked cookies and brownies to the manager of the motorcycle repair garage to apologize for having loaded his Dumpsters.

On the way home, I noticed a little bakery downtown that had just opened and didn’t seem to be doing very well. I made an appointment to see the manager and told her about my former campus munchies business. I watched her eyes light up. Then I introduced her to Goober, and she hired him to do the food runs. He needed a job after all that money he’d lost playing poker.

I was surprised, but … I guess the blind pursuit of money and power really is bad for a person. Who knew?

Well, everyone, I guess, except me.

Despite the fact that all my ideas turned into poo on a stick, everyone around me farts gold dust these days.

Sarah’s not mad at me, even though I suspect she still thinks I took too much credit for her new business, which, I might point out, landed her a part-time job at the hair salon.

Katie’s not talking to me, but that’s nothing new. She does nod at me in the hall. I take that as progress. And she’s going to have to hire some tutors to handle all her students.

I learned from Sarah and Katie that it’s always better to make money with your own ideas than to sponge off others.

JonPaul and Sam and Renee the security guard are jewelry-making partners. They’re talking about going to art fairs this summer to sell their goods. JonPaul and Renee are the creative side, and Sam takes care of supplies and inventory and their website.

They taught me that successful people stick to what they’re good at and what makes them happy.

Daniel, that sly dog, took what used to be poker time and started giving skating lessons to little kids. The team worked out a deal with the rink; they teach the itty-bitty skater classes in exchange for discounted ice time. Daniel says the team’s reactions have gotten really sharp because of how fast they’ve had to learn to stop and catch the toppled toddlers.

They taught me that hobbies and jobs can have some overlap; and that maybe, if you like what you do, you don’t need to blow off steam.

No one has even bothered to thank me for starting them out. I’m glad I don’t have their karma, because that kind of ingratitude is going to come home to roost someday. Well, I’m rising above it; that’s what great men do. Rise above adversity. Besides, I’m too busy to obsess about the unfairness of life, because I’m working all the time.

I work at Amalgamated Waste Management from twelve-thirty to five p.m. on Saturdays and school holidays. ’Nuff said. It’s not that bad. Mostly because I think I fried whatever sense receptors in my nasal cavity used to allow me to smell. I think I’ll ask to stay on even after I’ve worked off my bill. An honest job is a great thing, I’ve discovered.

I work from five-thirty to nine-thirty p.m. on Saturdays and school holidays at the storage facility, cleaning out abandoned spaces, inventorying items for sale and dividing the rest into resale, recycle and refuse.

It’s pretty good money. Nowadays I work hard and there’s nothing,
ab-sew-loot-lee nuh-thing,
smart about what I do. But maybe eighth graders weren’t meant to be world-class moguls.

I’m as confident as ever that success is still in my future. A guy like me can’t help but excel in this life, even if I’m taking a break from the fast track right now.

I never did manage to ask Tina out on a date. I was at work the night of the dance. She still doesn’t know I’m the best possible boyfriend material in the whole entire school.

I have new ideas for how to fix that. I just know that the very next time I come up with a plan to get her attention, it’s going to work.

Gary Paulsen
is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, including three Newbery Honor Books:
The Winter Room, Hatchet,
and
Dogsong.
He won the Margaret A. Edwards Award given by the ALA for his lifetime achievement in young adult literature. Among his Random House books are
Liar, Liar; Woods Runner; Lawn Boy; Lawn Boy Returns; Notes from the Dog; Mudshark; The Legend of Bass Reeves; The Amazing Life of Birds; The Time Hackers; Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day; The Quilt
(a companion to
Alida’s Song
and
The Cookcamp
);
How Angel Peterson Got His Name; Guts: The True Stories Behind
Hatchet
and the Brian Books; The Beet Fields; Soldier’s Heart; Brian’s Return, Brian’s Winter,
and
Brian’s Hunt
(companions to
Hatchet
);
Father Water, Mother Woods;
and five books about Francis Tucket’s adventures in the Old West. Gary Paulsen has also published fiction and nonfiction for adults. His wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen, is an artist who has illustrated several of his books. He divides his time between his home in Alaska, his ranch in New Mexico, and his sailboat on the Pacific Ocean. You can visit him on the Web at
GaryPaulsen.com
.

Here’s another terrific story about Kevin

Available from Wendy Lamb Books
ISBN: 978-0-385-74001-2