There is a time in our childhood when all children feel an entrepreneurial desire.  Often times this desire is culminated the in the creation of a lemonade stand, as was the case with me.  On a hot summer day when my sister and I were bored, we would often ask my mom to make us lemonade.  We would then scrounge through the cupboards looking for foam cups and napkins in whatever combination we could find.  After the proper resources were gathered we would load it all in the wagon, tie it to my bicycle, and ride down the hill to the road.  We would draw a sign and hang it on our card table and wait patiently for a car to drive by.  After several hours without a car, we would duct tape over the price and drop it to perhaps 20 cents.  If this did not work we would create a two for one deal.  Perhaps even we would make drinks for children under 7 free.  If this also did not work we would bag some trail mix and try to sell it with the lemonade.  Usually, we would either get tired of sitting there or would drink all of our product.  If it were not for the charity of a passing neighbor who would give us a couple bucks or my father coming home from work; our lemonade stand would have been more like a picnic by the road.

However unsuccessful the lemonade stand was, it was still always a lot of fun.  I think this is something that can carry on into the rest of your life.  Selling things can be just as fun as buying them.  Thus when you realize that you are actually constantly selling, you can really have a lot of fun with it.  Although it may not make you rich, it will provide you with useful experience to draw on for the rest of your life.

2 thoughts on “The Lemonade Stand”
  1. I used to do the same thing! I would always be wanting to sell something, whether it be lemonade, cookies, pokemon cards, toy cars, etc. I would always be up for selling even when the item my friends and I were selling wasn’t exactly a hot commodity. I remember once I tried to sell the coral I found on the beach to any beach-goer brave enough to walk by my towel. And it was always fun, no matter what the object for sale was.

  2. I think teaching kids the value of selling and commerce at a young age is incredibly valuable and really enjoyed this story about your young selling adventures. Even if every kid doesn’t have a massively successful lemonade stand to their name, learning what works and what doesn’t about trying to serve others is an invaluable experience.

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