My mother raised us alone since I was 10 years old because my father abandoned us to start a new family. She is illiterate, she can’t write and can barely read. Nevertheless, she was always able to provide for me, my three brothers and two sisters. Somehow, she managed to steer the boat (our family) in the right direction. Her leadership skills would be the envy of many 500 fortune companies’ CEO’s. Every morning she knew that she had to do better than the day before to keep our company (our family) afloat. There was competition, several gangs in the area recruiting for entry level positions, and my mother’s combination of excellent customer service and accountability would keep us from joining their ranks.
When it comes to budgeting, she knew exactly how to manage our finances day by day. It is not an urban legend, there were a couple of specific days during the week that we got to eat meat and drink milk. She was not stretching our money so that it could last until the next payday; there was no payday, she was stretching our money so that it could last one day. From time to time, she would go to the local store to ask for a line of credit, her credit history was great and she would always pay back or would exchange for her seamstress services. The line of credit was so generous that it would help us get some bread, eggs and beans. She was a very fiscally responsible CEO, would not spent more than what she could afford and would not waste any resources. She would not jeopardize our family’s future by spending in nonsense perks, no TV, birthday parties or expensive coffee. One litter soda was converted into two by adding one litter of water. Coffee was replaced by tea made from oranges leaves stolen from our neighbor.
She also did a lot of marketing; people in the neighborhood knew that she had a bad temper and nobody dared to mess with us. And sales too, making sure that our neighbors knew that we all were available to do some chores for them.
See? My mother was a great CEO, she is now retired but during her tenure our family had wonderful moments and it is now up to us to manage our own successful families.
I know she didn’t see it as a company, her only motivation was loved.