Initiative

On my first full day living in North Texas, I spent the day moving the family's personal belongings from the back of a rental truck into a storage locker in 100 degree heat. The dog was with me, happy to be in the shade with a bowl of ice water provided by the proprieter. When I was about a third of the way through, the fellow who was renting the locker next to mine appeared.

"Why don't you go downtown and hire you a couple of Mexicans to help you?" he asked.

Being new to the area, I had no idea what he was talking about, much less where I could find downtown. I politely declined.

Within about 6 months or so of my arrival, I deduced where downtown was and I had figured out how the system of day labor worked. It seems that there are several places where one could drive one's vehicle, hold up some fingers and instantly have the services of one or several anxious workers looking for a day's wage.

Putting aside the question of the legality or the illegality of the workers present at these places, I noted that these workers showed a certain amount of initiative which seems to be lacking in certain other areas. If I were wanting to expand my pool of unskilled or semi-skilled labor for my business, I would be taking a hard look at these men competing daily for the chance to work.

They show initiative and I find that admirable.

Those men know what's at stake. They most likely have families to support, mouths to feed and rent to pay. They deal with the hard realities of life on a day in and day out basis. They haven't rolled over to play dead nor have they queued up at the local social services offices to try to get a handout. They're out there every day, showing initiative despite handicaps of little or no education.

Poverty can either be opportunity or it can be a prison. Meet Juan Elenise, a strapping young lad living in southern Dallas county from a home of modest means. Juan is (as his name implies) of Hispanic descent, is part of a somewhat large and very close-knit family, and as of about a month and a half ago, became a father. Juan is fighting poverty by working. He has a regular job which doesn't pay a whole lot and has been known from time to time to find other jobs to supplement his income. That is, he works when he has the time. He is also putting himself through College in pursuit of a better life for him, for Juan Diego, and for Jacklyn... daughter of the lovely Miss Carol.

Juan is my step son-in-law. I am proud of him. I admire him. He has a sense of initiative.

I see the day in the not so distant future when life will get a bit easier for Juan, where he has a job which pays more as a result of the groundwork he is laying now. He will have more time to better enjoy his son and to teach him the most important of life's lessons... that eventually hard work and persistance will pay off. All it takes is a measure of initiative.

Be Seeing You!