Josh TrentIdentity Transformation Architect and award winning Host of the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast—a decade-strong show with over 750 episodes and 15M downloads.

Dad Taught Entrepreneurship: Earn Your Baseball Gear! #shorts

20 Aug 2026 · 2 min

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1:40

In this short personal anecdote, the narrator recalls a lesson from his father at age nine about earning money to buy baseball equipment. The father challenges him to earn the money, listing all the chores the boy already does and stating there is nothing left to pay him for unless he finds an external need. The boy approaches a neighbor, the Evans family, offers to mow, edge, sweep, and tend the yard and garden, negotiates a price, and earns enough to purchase a baseball glove and bat. When the father sees the new gear, he asks how it was earned and then charges the boy $7.50 for depreciation on the equipment used, teaching a lesson about responsibility, cost accounting, and the basics of entrepreneurship.

Chapters

When I was 9, I went to my dad and I said, I'd like to buy a baseball glove, bat, and, you know, catcher's mitt, what do you call it? Mm-hmm. And he said, great. So I said, I'd like to earn some money. And he said, have you mowed the yard? Yes. Have you edged the sidewalk? Yes. Have you swept the garage? Yes. Have you done the hedges? Yes. Have you cleaned all the flower beds out? Yes. Have you tightened all the shales on the side of the house? Yes. Have you shined my shoes? Yes. And he went through all my duties around the yard and house and everything else that I had. He said, son, if they're all done, I have nothing that I can pay you for unless you have something that needs to be done that I have as a need. I suggest you go to the neighbors and find out if there's any of those needs any of the neighbors have. So I went 2 doors down to the Evans And I saw an unruly house, you know, yard, and I offered to mow and edge and sweep and do the hedges and the flower beds, everything. Even was willing to do clean the garage. And the lady said, well, how much? And I came up with a number. I didn't know what to think, but I just came up with it. And she said, that sounds fair. And I earned really good money that day. And I went and bought my baseball glove and bat. And my dad saw me with a baseball glove and bat, and he says, how did you earn that? I went to the Evans and I did their whole yard. He says, well, that's great. What equipment did you use? And I said, well, I did this equipment in the garage. He said, well, I have to charge you for that. That's a depreciation schedule on that. So he calculated that I owed him $7.50.