Lessons from my “Lazy” Daughter

When my oldest was eight years old, she decided that she wanted more money than the allowance she got from me.

She thought about who else had money and noticed that her younger sisters did.

She decided to figure out a way to convince her sisters to part ways with their allowance in a way where they would be happy to do so.

She remembered that her sisters liked playing games.

Here in the United States, we have a pizza chain targeted towards children called Chuck E. Cheese.

In addition to pizza, the establishment has a bunch of video games and games of skill that allow you to win tickets which can then be redeemed for prizes.

My daughter remembered that her sisters liked those games, so she built a simple game out of a shoebox… and then played the game in front of her sisters, while making lots of sounds and comments like, “Ohhh…,” “Wow…,” “This is so much fun.”

When her sisters wanted to play too, she said, “No problem. You can use your allowance to play the game, and win tickets and prizes too.”

The prizes were her old dolls that she no longer wanted.

Within an hour, she collected all of the allowance from her two younger sisters.

Despite admiring this cleverness, I was concerned that maybe the little ones got ripped off. But, when I checked with them, they were just thrilled to give up their allowance to play their older sister’s game.

Now years later, my oldest daughter hates doing chores. She will spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to convince her sisters to do her chores on her behalf.

She spends a ridiculous amount of time trying to convince me to do her chores for her too.

What utterly surprises me is how often I actually agree to do so!

She is so convincing and so persuasive that I often find myself agreeing without even realizing what she’s actually doing.

For a long time, I kept wondering if maybe I’m inadvertently raising a very lazy daughter.

I’ve since come to appreciate that I’m not raising a lazy daughter. I’m raising a daughter that grasps the concept of leverage.

Leverage is harnessing other people’s money. (In this case, it’s her sisters’ money.)

Leverage is harnessing other people’s labor. (In this case, it’s my labor!)

Leverage is recognizing what you want, who has it, and figuring out how to convince them to give it to you.

I used to worry that she might never be able to get a job by being this “lazy.”

Then I realized, I got it all wrong.

She’s so good at selling and harnessing leverage that she would be a very effective CEO someday.

By the way, when I deconstruct the specific sales techniques she uses… I realize they are the exact same sales techniques I use personally and teach in my class on How to Sell.

She uses my simple two-step sales process brilliantly.

I can’t decide if I’m more irritated that she’s using my own techniques against me, or impressed that she has been clever enough to figure out what most adults will never figure out in their lifetimes.

I’m leaning towards the latter.

Here’s why.

I’ve come to appreciate that the secret to getting anything you want in life is to learn how to sell and convince others to give it to you.

My class on How to Sell Your Ideas in Everyday Life teaches a SIMPLE two-step sales process that even an eight-year-old could do (and has!).

If you’re interested in learning this process and would like to be notified when I open a limited release of my class later this month, just submit the form below.