When I was only seven years old, I started probably my first business ever. It was not exactly a business, per se, but really it was me selling my neighbor's trash. I noticed after school one day that my neighbor was throwing out an old collection of National Geographic magazines. I thought that since they were in good shape and there were a ton of them just sitting there, I would set some of them up on a table in front of my home and try and sell them to people walking by on busy Columbia Road in Dorchester.
It worked far better than I thought. People who were walking by on their way home from work scooped up enough copies (that I was selling for a mere quarter each) that I made over ten dollars! To a second-grader, this was like hitting the lottery! I was thrilled that I was able literally able to turnsomeone's trash into someone else's treasure for very little time and effort.
Recently, I listed a three-family for sale in Dorchester on Columbia Road and it's right next door to where I lived in second grade. It's the same building that was throwing out the National Geographics! (I'm not sure if it's the same people since there are six rental units in the building.) It's amazing how 27 years ago, I was selling someone else's trash and now, I'm selling the very building that trash came from, someone's most expensive possession. If someone approached me when I was seven and told me that I would be selling my neighbor's house in a few decades, I would have thought they were crazy! I'm asking way more than 25 cents for it, though!
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