She reached out and kissed me several times and when I relaxed, she “sucker punched me” with an offer I wasn’t expecting.  Her offer was that she would match whatever money I chose to use from my personal savings, but she warned me that she and Dad would not replace my money if I use it for these sneakers because I had perfectly good sneakers already.  Well, I took her up on that offer and I drained my piggy bank!  Mom kept her word and matched my savings.  And my lessons began.

Money Always Leaves You Much Faster Than It Arrives

The amount of money I had when I reached the department store was all that I could gather.  Being young and not very smart, I was on my own to make the purchase completely on my own – Mom’s idea.

I told the salesman what I wanted to buy.  He came back with the sneakers.  They were just so beautiful that I gave him all the money that I had.  His reply, “Son, is this all the money you have?  It is not nearly enough for these sneakers.   These sneakers cost quite a bit more.”

I stopped breathing.  And after what seemed like forever, I think the salesman noticed that I was about to faint and he grabbed me and said, “I can tell that you want these shoes – so here is what I am going to do for you.  I can’t sell you the sneakers you wanted, BUT I can give you my word that I have a pair of sneakers that are just as good and YOU DO have enough money for them.  These other sneakers have not been advertised to the public yet.  They are still very much a BIG SECRET!  Son, You can trust me on this as I am a sneaker salesman and I don’t make promises that I can’t keep“.

All Promises Made Are Not Always Automatically Kept

Well, believe it or not, the price of these other sneakers turned out to be EXACTLY the same amount of money that I had that day.  I was amazed by that and considered that I was being given another sign that these “secret sneakers” were meant for me and this big race.

Decisions Made In The Dark Will Look Different  In The Light

I kept my “secrets sneakers” hidden until just before the big race.  I slipped them on, laced them up, and proudly approached the rest of the guys.  Somebody spotted my shoes and made an announcement – “Look at those shoes!  Man, he must really be ready!”  I certainly felt that I was ready.  And, so the race began and as quickly as I had paid for those “secret sneakers”, I realized that I was no longer the fastest runner in the neighborhood.  I had actually just lost the race and I had no idea why because I had always been faster than even the guy who won the race.

You Are Always At Your Best When You Are Being Yourself

My “secret sneakers” were placed in the back of my closet.  I never intended to wear them again.  But, a few days after the big race, one of my buddies said something that I had not known.  He said, “Remember that big race we had?  I really thought you would beat that guy, in fact almost all of us were shocked when you lost.  So, they all asked me to find out why you changed the way that you run?”  I told him, “I didn’t change the way I run.  I only know one way to run.”

He disagreed with me.  He told me that in the big race, I wobbled funny and that it definitely was different from how I used to run.  So we set up another race, but I used my old sneakers that time.

I won the race against the same guy who had just beaten me.  And, I was told that I ran my old way, not the wobbly way.  That news really made me curious, so I pulled out the “secret sneakers” and ran a race with them only to be told that the wobble was back and I wasn’t nearly as fast again.

My “secret sneakers” had some kind of an irregular toe design to them that caused my toes to become squished in an odd way . . . making me wobble when I tried to sprint.

No wonder that salesman said the sneakers were still a “secret”.

Lessons Lived Are The Ones Best Remembered

This article was written by SDK Hunter Consulting Group