The true story of a Street Urchin who made a fortune from nothing. (c) Harry S Richards

As kids in a poor part of town, we collected all kinds of junk to sift through and hopefully resell. Sometimes we were lucky, but mostly we were told to "get lost" with unprintable words to that effect. There was no spare cash at all, so we just had to use our wits to make some. Fortunately, I banded with a group of similar street urchins who were reasonably honest. We just wanted to get some cash without any hassle from the cops.

Our primary source of income came from collecting old newspapers door-to-door. We bundled and tied them into manageable bundles to resell to the waste-paper and scrap dealers of the day.

We knew that as kids we wouldn't get a fair price because we watched adults being paid double what we were for the same weight. Being wise to this, we loaded our bundles with a few bits of scrap iron, until we learned that it was easier to soak half of each bundle in water, making certain that the wet half was positioned in the center to make it undetectable.

That’s how we got the right price for our wastepaper collection without the dealer being any the wiser. He was happy to believe that he was ripping us off, and we were more than happy to be ripping him off – for the rightful price due to us.

Often we would come across some valuable lead-pipe or copper. The same thing applied. We were just ragged kids, so the scrap dealers would pay us less than adults for the same weight. We learned to fill our scrap lead or copper pipe with wet garden soil, or sand if we could find some, to increase the weight and our cash as a result.

As the years passed I got work as a teen in all kinds of different places, and much to my surprise my workmates were all so very negative about any mention of making money or starting a business. Up to that point in my life I had always believed that everyone had similar views, but it quickly dawned upon me that most people lack the belief in themselves to take any kind of risk. I suppose that’s why so many good people suffer needlessly in mundane work-a-day jobs without any future prospects. One day in the workplace, I simply happened to mention that I would like to start a business, but you would have thought I had said something grossly insulting. The responses were amazing, such as:

“What business can you start these days? Everything has already been thought of” and,

“If there was any chance for a business it’s already being done” and even,

“If ever you go into business you’ll go bankrupt, it happened to my uncle”

“ My wife said don’t ever think of going into business as you cannot trust anyone”

At that point I decided that this was the wrong place for me, even though I needed a regular pay check, I was becoming depressed with the charged atmosphere of negativity. I really had no idea what kind of business I wanted, but I thought that perhaps a starting point would be to get a job in selling or sales.

At the time there were large advertisements running in the national presses inserted by a well known business machine manufacturer for Trainee Sales Representatives. I applied and got a job, but left a few months later because I just could not sell anything, I followed the scripts and did all that they said I should do, but I just could not make a sale. I had failed as a salesman. However, I saw so many other people who had the talent to sell, so I took a job with no pay check so that I could go around with these talented guys and try to learn from them.

It was so demoralising, they would go from place to place, giving out the same old spiel, and I just could not understand their job at all. Little did I know at this stage that in just a few years I would be voted the top salesman for a multinational company, and later as my own boss, would you believe – in business selling office machines! Ironically, doing the identical job I had failed so miserably earlier?

What made the difference? – I had discovered the secret.

In all walks of life there are only a few people who know the secret of their job or profession. There really are secrets to every trade, and every profession. The problem is that so many self-appointed “Gurus” have bombarded the Internet with claims that they can give you the “secrets” to this and that, and everything else in between. Some are quite genuine, but some are just charlatans after your money.

In my own dealings I have always formed my judgement based upon the proverb “Beware false prophets for you shall known them by their fruits” I suppose in the same way that you judge a tree by the fruit it yields. Then I apply another old adage “When in doubt, go without”. If something is right for you, then you will know instinctively that it is. When making any kind of decision simply trust your instincts.

We must all learn from others, everyone has a story to tell, sometimes, like me someone will tell you a GENUINE Secret. Many years ago feeling very depressed in a new job I had started because I was virtually wearing myself out making unproductive sales calls, a truly wonderful sales manager gave me a secret in just a few short sentences. That secret changed my life forever. I never looked back since then, and regret so much that I have lost touch with him over the years.

There are all kinds of training schools and colleges where they spend months and years teaching you something or other, but I can tell you the greatest thing I ever learned was told to me in less than 5 minutes. Less than 5 minutes to learn something that would change my life forever!

I could approach some very large corporations and talk to their sales teams for just a few minutes to make them into super-salesmen, but if I offered that service, how many corporate executive officers would believe me – none? I do care for the ordinary struggling work-a-day guy who has ambition, a dream, and filled with hope. Those are the guys I want to impart my secret to – If you are one of those good people, give me just 5 minutes of your time and I’ll give you the secret too.

I gave the 5 minute secret to a man who had been a builder’s labourer for seventeen years. He had no experience at all in sales or selling, or even business for that matter. Within the year he had made six figures in a business of his own. His own story is on my website, just click on the link “Case Histories”.

***************************************************************** **** Resource Box: Article by Harry S Richards. Former Street Urchin and Founder of Beauforts PC Trading. Learn from his experience: Go to: http://www.beauforts.biz ***************************************************************** **** Attn: Ezine Editors / Site Owners / Webmasters / everyone else Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.