Did you ever tell your parents about something that you really, really wanted and get that same old retort back at you ……’Well, money doesn’t grow on trees.’? And that was that. How deflating. That scarcity mindset not only destroys our ability to thrive but it keeps us locked into limitation and fear. So we are on a mission to flip that concept upside down, on its head and reverse cartwheel it out of our own kids and teach them instead, that with hard work and the right mindset, money can in fact, grow on trees.
I don’t know what a reverse cartwheel is but I do know that Lego is a high priced commodity. Especially when you attach the Avengers logo onto it. It seems to multiply that dollar sign exponentially. And our 6 and half year old son Lachie of course likes both.
Lego. And The Avengers.
He’s built a few. But has developed a deep desire to get as many Avengers Lego sets as he can, build them and create his own ultimate Avengers battle scene that he can play with.
For Christmas, he asked Santa to bring him the most expensive Avengers Lego set I think there is. At $300 we told him it was unlikely that he would get that one, as Santa only brings small presents because he has so many children to deliver presents to.
Although he was happy with the one he got, he still had a deep yearning for that particular box of Lego. Plus some others.
I’ll be honest, the first thing that I wanted to say to him when he asked if we could just go buy them for him at the shop was, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees son.’ I was raised in a middle class family. We always had everything we ever needed. Nothing more. Nothing less. My parents worked extremely hard for everything we had. And there are so many merits to what I learnt about how they raised me to think about money. And hard work. But that term, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’ well, it cuts you off at the knees and disables you from even believing that getting something you want is even possible.
I would’ve loved to buy him that set. With the others. And see the delight in his face on Christmas day. But a $300 box of Lego is something that we believed that he needed to earn for himself. And would be so much more valuable for him to learn.
We don’t want to limit our kids by teaching them the fear of scarcity. We want them to work out how they can plant their own money tree, water it, nurture it and watch it grow so they can pluck their money from it whenever they want to. And to believe that in fact, money does grow on trees. That we create our own opportunities. Simply by believing that they are there and daring to go ask for them.
And that we all truly have the ability to make something from nothing.
So we sat him down and we explained that whilst he doesn’t have the money right now, there are ways that he can get it. We first looked up the Lego boxes online and calculated how much he would need to get all 3 boxes that he wanted.
$300 + $250 + $55 makes a total of $605!
He had just recently spent all of his pocket money from his chores on another, smaller Lego set, and anyway, it was not anywhere near the amount of money that he needed.
We were to start from scratch.
So we calculated how many weeks pocket money it would take for him to save that amount of money.
But 108.33 weeks was simply too long for him to wait.
So, we started to come up with other options for him to make extra money to contribute to his slowly growing pocket money tin.
Extra chores, lemonade stands, cupcake stalls, pet feeding ……. None really had any merit in earning $605 dollars fairly quickly.
So , that’s when entrepreneurial Dad steps in and comes up with the idea of ‘Trash2Treasure.’
What if ……. we walked the streets asking people to donate things they no longer need but might be of value to sell? And then set up a garage sale ….. and sell them?
Four weeks later, after many hours of door knocking after school, reaching out to friends and family, creating flyers and sorting through potential products to sell in his garage sale, Lachie has a garage full of things to sell!!! The generosity we have received not just from people we do know but those that we don’t has been astounding!
Garage Sale for Lego!
From bikes, to toys, to T.V.’s, new coffee machines, games, clothes, beds and fish tanks …… people from our neighbourhood have gifted him so many items that we can barely even walk through the garage. Needless to say, I cannot wait to hold this garage sale and be able to see the garage floor again.
Last night was sticker time.
We sat, for hours, sticking dollar signs all over everything he has collected.
And the excitement in this boy is so much more than it would ever have been if Santa had delivered that set to him on Christmas day.
He’s a little nervous. A very shy boy, he will have to stand in his ‘Trash2Treasure’ store on Saturday morning and sell the products that he has worked so hard to collect. We will all be there to help and support him. But he can see the end in sight. And I can’t wait to take him down the road to buy him the Lego set of his dreams, that he has worked so hard for.
All because of one simple statement.
‘Yes son, money does grow on trees.’
We’re training him to believe that yes, you can have the things that you want. There is opportunity and money everywhere. You just have to go find it. Isn’t it time that we reframed the thinking of scarcity and fear that there is not enough? And break that generational attitude that limits us in ways we don’t even know?
Let’s stop limiting our kids with that ridiculous ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’ mindset. And instead let’s teach them to go and get what they want. By believing that they can. Putting in the hard work. And simply daring to go and get it.
Money does grow on trees. The whole concept that it doesn’t, is completely and utterly wrong. We print money….. from paper …… which is made out of ……. TREES! Teach your kids about money. Teach them that they are capable of more. Teach them to dream big and that there really are no limitations to anything they want to achieve….. if they choose to go after the opportunity. Guide them away from that scarcity mentality and encourage them to believe in an abundant mindset- where there is enough for everyone!