HERE A JOB, THERE A JOB....

I have been working since I was sixteen years old, and quite a bit of that time I have had more than one job at a time. That's what you do when one job isn't enough to meet your needs...and New Mexico was no exception.

I knew the job at the pharmacy would not be enough; I've already mentioned that the pay was pretty low and the cost of living high, so after about a week, I started looking for an additional job and found one at a housekeeping agency as a cleaner...something I'd never done (at least not for pay) before. (My daughter was still working at the fast food restaurant, but had been promoted to manager. This allowed her to switch to days and put Joey into day care so that he had other kids to play with.)

The housekeeping job was definitely hard work...but, that's never bothered me. I always take pride in any job I do, so I managed to become quite good at this cleaning thing.

Meanwhile, as I told you in my previous post, I had told my boss at the pharmacy that I would give him one month to see the quality of my work and to give me a raise, and if I didn't get it, I would have to leave. Well, at the end of the month I got my paycheck and (surprise, surprise) the raise was not on it, so I went to his office to discuss it with him. His response was that the "home office was not giving any raises to anyone" and he was really sorry, blah blah blah, and he hoped I'd stay. I said good-bye.

On my way home from the pharmacy, I stopped in at the housekeeping agency and told my boss there that I would be available for more hours.

I continued with the housekeeping agency for another two months as a cleaner...then, one day, the owner, knowing that I had had previous experience as an executive secretary in Akron for an insurance company, approached me and asked if I'd be interested in working in the office instead of out in the field. More money, and certainly a lot easier job, so I jumped at the chance.

This was the turning point; another absolute life-changing event, and where "The Secret" once again came into play. The first and most important life-changing event was when we moved to New Mexico...that started the whole chain of events that put me on the correct path to success.

Running the office, seeing how the business worked, one day I just had an epiphany and I knew I could do this myself! I mean, it was a light bulb moment! I just knew, without a doubt, that I could and should start my own housekeeping business, and that it would be a total success!

So I began to plan. The first thing I did was to buy a Rolodex and put it on my desk at work. I told myself, as I looked at it every day, that one day soon that Rolodex would contain the names of my own clients.

One of the points of "The Secret" is "The Law of Attraction". This means that you put in front of you what you want to draw towards you: pictures of a car or house you want, the job you want, the vacation....whatever. Put your wishes on a cork board and hang it on a wall where you see the things you have pinned on it every day, and KNOW that you will get those things! Don't just hope....KNOW it!

That Rolodex was my focus, and I didn't realize that I was putting The Secret into motion..that book didn't exist back then, and I had never heard of the concept. But, of course, things don't just fall out of the sky into your lap..you have to take steps to make your dreams come true...and my first step was to choose a name for my new business: Cinderella. It was perfect, because when you hear that name, what does it make you think of immediately? Cleaning, right? Then I had to design a flier, type it up (no computers at that time in my life) and then take $50.00 and go to the nearest print shop and have 500 fliers printed up....and then deliver them, door to door until they were all gone. I truly enjoyed this! It was such fun to see the neighborhoods and the courtyards where people had little hideaways full of pots of flowers, small ponds with Koi fish in them, and benches and tables where they could sit and enjoy their little private havens. I love the architecture in New Mexico.

It took a little over a week to deliver all the fliers, (which I did after work, and on the weekend) and every day at my desk I would look at that Rolodex and envision my future clients' names in it.

Finally, calls started coming in....and they kept on coming in...until I had enough clients where I couldn't handle them alone. So I hired a girl to work for me....and I gave my notice at the housekeeping agency.

I was on my way!

Time to say good-bye again. It is 2:25 a.m. on August 16, 2008. Way past my bedtime!