If you want more out of life, learn sales.
It was the 1980s and my grandmother wanted an automatic washing machine.
This one appliance could be a life changer for a woman who still had one son living with her and cared for a husband with a blue-collar job.
My grandad could afford it, too. He was the crane operator of the tallest crane in our harbour, one of the best-paid men among his peers.
The problem was, my grandad was… How do I put this nicely… economical.
The moment he returned home with his salary, he’d distribute it into several titled envelopes: food, bills, clothes, savings, etc. Every month, some of the envelopes were renamed: “shoes for the kids” would become “New Year’s.”
Never did a single penny escape this unfaltering system.
In short, he wasn’t the type of guy who’d buy anything without budgeting for it first. Plus, he wasn’t the one doing the laundry. He’d still get the same result: washed clothes.
So how does grandma do this?
Slowly and methodically, she turned the lack of an automatic washer into my granddad’s problem.