Slim Randles is here as today’s Wednesday’s Guest with a fun story about business – big city and small town. Like Slim and Herb and many others, I prefer small town and mom and pop shops. There’s something about those small stores and the people who run them that’s pretty special.
Herb is that kind of guy.
Grab a donut and read on…
Ran into Herb Collins the other day down by the school. He volunteers there, from time to time, helping kids with their math homework, and trying to recruit future members of The Great World of Business.
He loved business, back in the days when he lived in the city and ran the pawn shop. For years now, ever since he hung up his jeweler’s loupe, he’s told us that there was an excitement to making the right deal.
“It has to be right for the customer and for me, or it isn’t right at all,” Herb always says. “You can do that and make several people happy and earn a living. There’s no need to take unfair advantage of someone just to earn a living.”
Our little town is a bit tame after city life, but it’s Herb’s wife’s home town and she wanted to come back here to live after he retired. So Herb turned to helping kids understand how wonderful business can be. He’s advised kids on the most effective way of delivering newspapers on their bicycles, he’s suggested advertising gimmicks for kids with summer lemonade stands, and he’s helped several boys market their skills with a lawn mower.
You can take the man out of the business, I guess, but it’s hard to take the business out of the man.
So after the shaking hands and the how-are-yous, we talked about kids and business, and the new crop of youngsters coming up this year. I couldn’t help thinking ol’ Herb might jump at the chance to dive back in the world of commerce again, but he disabused me of that right away.
“All through with that,” he said, shaking his head. “I was a successful businessman and now I’m successfully retired.”
Successfully retired?
“That’s right,” he grinned. “I have a wife and a television set, and they both work.”
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Brought to you by our radio show, “Home Country with Slim Randles.” Let us know if you like it.
In addition to the radio show, Slim Randles writes the nationally syndicated column, “Home Country” that is featured in 380 newspapers across the country. He is also the author of a number of books including Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing. That title, and others, are published by LPD Press. If you enjoy his columns here on the blog, you might want to check out the book Home Country. It features some of the best of the columns he has shared with us, as well as the 4 million readers of the newspapers where his columns appear.
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That’s all for me for today folks. Hope you enjoyed this mid-week fun.