Hard to get an old dog... MY ASS!

Here's a story about one of my best friend's in the world.

He got a parking ticket. And didn't pay it. And then another. And didn't pay that either. And then a few more. Never paid any of them.

So the other day, he was in a rush -- had to get a package off to Fed Ex to meet a HUGE business deadline, the kind that causes cold sweats when big deals are on the line.

And he rushed to his car after getting the final documents notarized and poof! his car was gone.
Towed. Impounded. Hasta la vista, Bay-bee!!

He didn't get the docs off, he literally "blew" the big business deal and he can't get his car for another 6 days because that's the earliest the DMV will schedule a time for him to pay his fines and clear all the "infractions" up.

Plus, it's gonna cost him over two thousand bucks.

My dear, dear friend is the master of letting small little things turns into big, problematic headaches that end up costing him way, way more of a usurious tax than he ever thinks he is going to pay when he first decides to be slovenly about the "little" things in life.

He parks in red zones and doesn't always feed meters because of the inconvenience factor. He doesn't deal with his parking tickets for a few reasons. The first one, he figures, "Well, it's just one little parking ticket... screw them anyway!... and he tosses it away."

The second one, it's kinda the same thing.

But then the third and fourth one come and since he didn't deal with the first two, why bother to deal with these? (This is when the lying to himself starts, the ol', "I'll just deal with all of them at one time next week and be done with it." Of course, he doesn't deal with this stuff.)

And then he gets another ticket or two... and then he needs to go to Fed Ex with a do or die business scenario... and that's when the cruel little Trickster that is life comes in and causes a meter maid to notice this guy's car has expired registration -- you thought otherwise? -- and calls the tow truck.

The Domino Theory -- and the last one falls with a bang!

My friend is a brilliant thinker, a great business person (yep, he really is... well, almost) and a guy who has declared bankruptcy twice in his life. Why? Because of the little things. They always get him. And he's in his 40's now, living a life of couldda, wouldda, shouldda... all because he thinks that life's wee little parking tickets don't need to be dealt with.

Kids and small homework assignments... in my class, they matter a ton. And I bust out the sledgehammer when stuff like this isn' dealt with properly in my room because when students think that the "small" things won't undo them in this world, it's because they often don't see how it absolutely ends up crippling people like one of my best friends on this planet.

A guy who, by the way, dismissively hits me with the"hard to get an old dog..." line when I try to talk to him about this stuff.

"Hard to get an old dog... MY ASS!" I tell him... as I drive him to him to the DMV. Geesh!