The Willie Payne Family's Famous Himalayan Singing Kitten Enterprise
BY BILL CHERRY, DALLAS BROKER-REALTOR
{---RE/MAX GALVESTON'S WILLIE PAYNE
Willie Payne is the owner of the Re/Max office in Galveston, Texas, and he is the absolute most noted authority on Galveston's famous resort home living, in my opinion.
And he should be, for after all, he was selling and promoting the real estate around the Galveston Country Club long before the rich and famous started buying there. We're talking about thirty years. He's a Galveston character.
Ask him what he does in his spare time, and he'll proudly tell you he's a member of the American Miscellaneous Society and the Chili Appreciation Society, and that his activities in the two clubs don't leave him room in the day for anything other than hunting and fishing.
Willie's a longtime member of Mensa. That's the derivative of a God-given pedigree that causes them to wonder why things are the way they are and then to try to figure out the answer. It's totally esoteric, and mostly does nothing more than waste time. Nevertheless, Willie has his Mensa certificate in a cock-eyed thin black frame with a dirty glass cover hanging on the wall behind his desk.
A few years back, Willie's Mensa IQ started tinkering with his mind again. It made him wonder what common threads run among all of those business people who amass great fortunes. He said his study showed that it wasn't excessive education or family money or luck. The common thread was almost all had been child entrepreneurs. They had always loved making a buck and figuring out clever ways to do it.
Willie and his children, William and Mary Elizabeth, decided that they would write a book on the subject, so they started interviewing people. They added some of those stories to their own, and the result is 44 Different & Proven Ways for Kids to Make Money.
My favorite of the forty-four is this one. One time the Paynes ended up with a bunch of kittens at their house. They were everywhere. So William and Mary Elizabeth went from door to door in the neighborhood trying to give them away. No success. Not one person took a free kitten. They knew they had to do something.
Figuring that if getting rid of them was going to require great effort and ingenuity, William told his sister and Willie that it stood to reason they ought to get paid for that marketing expertise. Here was William's solution.
"Dad, let's put ‘em in a box, take them to Randall's grocery store, and sell them in the parking lot."
So Mary Elizabeth printed a big sign, and they loaded it and the cardboard box full of kittens and a card table into Willie's Cadillac and drove to Randall's. They set up their homemade kiosk on the sidewalk in front of the door.
Then Mary Elizabeth taped up the sign on the front of the card table. It said in big letters, "Himalayan Singing Kittens for Sale. $1.00 each."
Of course it wasn't long before the Randall's manager told them to pack up their Monty table and move on. But by then all the kittens had been sold.
I know your question. So here's how William would respond. "They closely resemble that very rare and famous Himalayan variety. However, the only way even the most knowledgeable can know for sure is to hear them sing. Unfortunately they only sing when they're at home in the Himalayas." That seemed to satisfy all of their potential customers that this really was a chance to own a rare cat, and for the all but give away price of one buck. They all sold.
44 Different & Proven Ways for Kids to Make Money is fun, and former childhood entrepreneurs and those wanting to be will enjoy Willie, William, and Mary Elizabeth's take on the subject. I don't know as it's available in bookstores, even though it should be, but you can get one from Willie at the Galveston Re/Max office. They're $6.95 and he'll throw in an autograph.
Someday I'll tell you how Willie sells houses. You won't believe his methods, but he's been selling multi-millions worth every year for as long as I've known him. By the way, if you haven't already guessed, I'm one of his most ardent admirers.
Copyright 2003 - William S. Cherry
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