Early Beginnings

Early Beginnings

Mom peeked into Jeff’s room coming up from the laundry, it was still a mess. Jeff was not only not cleaning, he wasn’t even in it. With a big sigh, she went and found him, in the kitchen, making a sandwich.

“You’re supposed to be cleaning your room,” she said, flatly.

“Had to take a break, hungry!” he said, alluding to the peanut butter sandwich he was making.

“You just had breakfast an hour ago, quite a large breakfast too, if I remember.”

“Well, all this work requires fuel.”

“I don’t seem to notice any work having been done…”

“Mental work.”

“Mental work?”

“I’ve been studying the issue and trying to think of the best way to handle it.”

“The issue is your room is a mess, and the best way to handle it is to clean it up…”

“Not really…”

“Oh? Well, who made the mess?”

“That’s beside the point. I know I did, but now I’m going to invent a method of doing the same things I did all week, without leaving a mess.”

“How about you don’t haul everything out and then leave it there.”

“That is against the rules, besides, if I don’t haul it all out it would never get used at all. A waste of the money you spent on those toys and games, right?”

Mom looked at him, he had her stuck between a rock and a hard place, again… “Well… technically…” she finally said, softly.

“I’m going to come up with a plan so I can use all my stuff, but it never gets messy or in the way when I run out of time!”

Mom gave up. “OK, let me know how that goes…" and she left.

Jeff became a millionaire in his early twenties. His mother always took the credit…