A CONVERSATION WITH THE YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR BOY BY THE POOLSIDE

It was a hot day, and the sun was out.

I was lounging by the poolside area, watching my niece and my sister swim in the pool, as my other sister was reading a novel, right next to me.

As am looking around, I hear a voice ask, “Would you like some juice?”

I assume that the voice I heard was of the person selling drinks by the pool area.

“But how come the voice I hear sounds like a young person’s voice?” I wondered.

So I turn to see where the voice is coming from.

When I look, I see a young boy, who looks the age of about 12years.

Surprised that a young boy of his age could be selling drinks, let alone, selling anything… at such a big place with all these people.

As I look at him, I begin to think to myself, “Isn’t he intimidated by all these adults? Couldn’t he be scared at the thought of selling a product to any of these people?”

I mean, I know a number of people who are much older than this young boy, and would actually cower at the thought of approaching any of these people, to sell a product.

I looked at him and asked, “How much does the juice cost?”

So he mentions the price, two thousand Uganda shillings.

I then ask my sister whether she wants to have some of the juice that this young gentle man is selling.

She agrees, and we make an order for about 4 cups.

The two cups are for me and my sister, and the two other cups for my niece and my other sister swimming in the pool.

The drinks arrive, and I begin sipping on my drink.

I take one sip, and I take another sip, and I ask him.

“Are you the one who makes this juice?”

He answers, “Yes, I am!”

I am actually surprised that a boy of his age is able to have a business, and do the marketing, and selling of the product, all at the same time.

So, at this point as I am obviously wowed, and as he can see the amazement on my face, I take another sip, and ask him which school he is in.

He mentions a name, which is one of the prominent secondary schools in Uganda.

So I ask him how old he is, and I go ahead to mention that am asking him all these questions because I am surprised that such a young person of his age could be doing business, secondly, because I have operated a juice business before, while I was in my senior six vacation.

He tells me how he is in his first year of High School, and how he started the business out of inspiration from his parents, who encouraged him to find something productive to do while in his holidays.

I then ask him how he is finding the business, and he says it’s going alright.

We have a chat, and we talk more on business, and I conclude our conversation by giving him a few encouraging words, and tips I had learned from running my own juice business.

I could tell he felt motivated and encouraged by the time our conversation ended.

After taking the two cups of juice to my sister and niece in the swimming pool, as I walk back, my other sister who I am seating with by the pool side, sends me to buy her another cup of juice.

When I go back to buy from him another cup, he asks me if I liked the juice, and whether he needed to add or subtract anything from the juice, to make it better.

I tell him the juice is nice, but he just needed to add a little bit of some more sugar.

Then as we are talking, some people enter, and walk towards him and ask him for their balance.

At this point, I notice that he seems to be almost shaking and starts fidgeting, and tells them, “I haven’t yet got balance, but let me go and look again and see if I can be able to get, and will bring it right outside to you.”

So they walk away and walk back to the pool.

As am standing there about to walk away, he mentions something to me and opens up.

He tells me how there are some people who usually disturb him, and sort of bully him at the pool, and make rude uncomfortable remarks to him.

So I ask him which people he is talking about.

Somehow, it then hits me that probably, he could be talking about the people that had just walked in a while ago, majorly because of the way he had reacted when they walked in, and the way that these two people had looked at him, when they demanded for the rest of their balance. Their body language just didn’t seem, or look right.

I ask him, “Are they the two people who just walked in? Because I noticed that you seemed uncomfortable and started to fidget when they walked in and were talking to you... I also noticed that they were somewhat mean and rude towards you?”

To which he nods in agreement, affirming what I had originally thought.

We talked and had a long discussion, as he narrated to me how these people had made him feel small on different occasions, ever since he started operating his business from this place.

He also mentioned how there are times when he would ask them for his payment, after they had bought juice from him, and they would tell him to come back later, and then when he would go back later, after he had completed moving around the whole swimming pool area, receiving his payment from everyone else, and return to them, they would still tell him to go back, and come back later, and even mention rudely, things like how his juice was not all that nice, but he kept on pestering them for his payment.

As I talk with this young boy, it’s clearly evident that the words from these grown ups had had a negative effect on him, and he had been affected by their rude remarks.

The reason I am writing this story is to let you know that, we need to be careful with the words we say to people, because you might just be discouraging or encouraging someone to either give up, or continue with pursuing that business, or dream.

I mean, here are these “grown ups”, bullying a young boy, without considering or putting any much thought into the matter, into whether they are discouraging or encouraging this boy, who is doing something as rare as being enterprising, at his young age!

We continued to chat thereafter, as I gave him advice on how to handle rude or mean customers.

I then took the juice to my sister, who had been waiting all the while.

At the end of the day, as we left this place, I left the place thinking about the conversation I had with this young entrepreneur boy, and how as grownups, we need to be more sensitive and careful with the way we behave towards young people, and the words we speak towards young people.

They are more easily affected by the words we speak into their lives! They easily get encouraged, and easily get discouraged.

I mean, who knows, you might just be the reason someone decides to quit, start, or revive that business.

Whoever you choose to be, just don’t be the reason that someone gives up on that business, or that dream.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have learned a thing or two from this article.

Have a blessed day!