There’s a very beautiful six year-old girl that has stolen my heart. She is young, but has spent her life raised in a pawn shop, playing with bullets, negotiating prices and talking to customers. Today she heard me discussing with someone the need to make adjustments to our marketing strategy. She listened intently, and asked me “daddy, what’s marketing?”
As best I could explain, I told her it’s where a business tells others what it’s about, and what matters to it, and why customers should come to shop at that business. She thought for a bit, and then asked to borrow some markers and post-it notes. I was busy with customers, and noticed her sticking notes on the counter. When she was done, she proudly exclaimed, “I did marketing daddy!”
When I came around the counter, this is what I saw. I was so proud of her! She was disappointed today that her progress report from school has her a little behind. She’s struggled with school this year because she doesn’t really like it that much. A couple of months ago, someone, in an angry tirade at the shop, made some disparaging comments about “the kind of daughter I was going to turn out” by raising her at my shop. As you can imagine, I did not respond well to that person. My daughter was there and heard the things the person said. Afterwards, she cried and asked me if people thought she was “stupid” because she had been raised in a pawn shop, like that person said. I was heartbroken. Since then, she’s really been caught up on the idea that she’s not smart and it angers me, so much, that the words of someone who I thought was a friend, have had that impact. Her mother and I have tried our best to reinforce to her that she’s not stupid and that her heart being good is the most important thing.
On days like today, I know just how smart my sweet little girl is, how motivated and interested and involved she is, and that she knows exactly what’s important!
They say
“I love you dad. He is the Owner. I love my dad. I love you customers. I love you. I love you. I love veterans.”
She is a marketing genius, and her little 
heart is in the right place! She’s my little diamond in the rough.
From The Other Side Of The Counter 