Three Spanish Words Made Me Rich

I’m a deca-millionaire.

But I wasn’t always one. 

Let me tell you a story…

When I was 18, I worked at an in-town gas station. I worked at night and befriended the people of the streets. 

Working in this environment brought out fears that I did not know existed. 

• Cold nights.

• Sketchy characters.

• Scenes of violence.

I was a full serve gas attendant and I had a smoking habit. 

Don’t judge me, I was young and dumb and broke. 

People would ask to “bum” a cigarette off of me. I had something that they wanted. The issue was that I could not afford their smoking habit in addition to my own at the same time. 

Here's how I fixed it...

I bought a pack of generic cigarettes, taped it to a styrofoam cup, and put it behind the cash register. Every time someone wanted one I would take their dime, put it in the cup, and give them a smoke.

When I got 10 dimes I would trade for a $1, when I got five $1 bills I'd turn it into a $5. I never took the money. 

See… I kept adding. 

One day, a Spanish man came into the store and said:

"¿Cambio de Cheques?" 

Those three words changed my life forever…

He handed me a check for $342 from Martin's Painting. I said "five bucks", he agreed, I took $337 out of the cup and he gave me the check. 

He came back every Friday for a few weeks and then showed up with the rest of his painting crew to cash their checks.

This is where my story begins…

Fast-forward a few years into the future, and I was well on the way to becoming a millionaire. 

If only I could have warned 18 year old Chris that he was about to lose it all…

In our next email, we’ll discuss how it all went down.

Do you want to know what happened next?

Reply “next” to be included in the following story.