David Willis Lessons Learned

It is worth far more than 20 bucks.

Delivering pizzas was not my dream job, but it did help pay the bills when I was younger. I worked my 8-5 M-F and then 3-4 nights a week I would put in a few hours to help supplement my income. Dave Ramsey is right. It is a quick way to make a few extra bucks when you need them.

I was a few years older than most everyone who worked in the store (which shall remain nameless for this post). But, I tried my best to fit in and have conversations in the slower times.

I still remember one conversation between me and another driver as clear as day, and it has been over 6 years ago:

"How was your last run," I asked.

"It was fine. He didn’t tip worth a crap, but that don’t matter." The driver smirked as he said this.

"Why doesn’t it matter?" I didn’t like where this was headed.

"Guy paid me with a twenty. It was fresh and crisp. Dumb (word omitted) didn’t see that there was another one stuck to it. Serves him right for not paying attention." He laughed.

I went on to ask why he didn’t give it back. He told me that the customer (which he called a few more names) wouldn’t miss it. I was disgusted.

Obviously, he had no qualms about skinning the customer. I was not in a position to make the matter right. Had I said anything to management about it, it would have been his word against mine. (Had I been the manager I would have fired him on the spot.) So, I swallowed the issue and did my best to avoid that driver.

Isn’t integrity worth a bit more than 20 bucks? One would hope so. He had the opportunity to do the right thing. He chose not to. He could have made a faithful customer for the store, but he was just a driver and he didn’t care. What did it matter? Strangely enough, he was promoted to store manager a little while later. I had moved on by then. Had I been there, I am not sure I could have worked for him. If he couldn’t make the right decision with 20 bucks, how was he going to keep the store running? He was fired not too long after taking his managerial role.

I thought about all of this a few days ago when I was buying some office supplies at Staples. There was a sale on one item, 10 for 10 bucks. So we got 10 and with our other stuff we checked out and left the store. My wife looked over the receipt and told me she felt like we hadn’t spent enough (I don’t hear that one too often). Then she realized we had only been charged for one of the ten items. So, I took the item and the receipt and went back in and paid for the 9 others. The cashier thanked me with some surprise in her voice. I smiled and told her that I was glad to help.

It would have been easy to shrug my shoulders and drive away. I am glad those choices are easy. I don’t want to turn around one day and realize that I can’t be trusted because at one point I was willing to take 9 bucks from Staples.

It starts somewhere. If you can’t be trusted with a small amount, how can you ever expect to be trusted with a big one?

David Willis Lessons Learned

Sticks? Really? Now that is kinda funny.

I had one of those oh no moments two days ago. We have been potty training our boy. He did his part and hopped down to go play. I flushed and nothing happened. I plunged and nothing happened. Then, I looked down at my feet and saw it…water running out of the bottom of the toilet. We knew that we were going to have to call the plumber because water was not draining like it was supposed to, but this was just gross.

So, next day, very little water was used before the plumber got there. I made plans to reinstall the commode and got supplies (needed to be done anyway.) The plumber showed up while I was at work. He did his plumber thing on the sewer clean-out in the back yard. Reread the subject line of the post. Yep. Sticks. My bouncing boy had stuffed a bunch of sticks and rocks down the pipe (with his mother and I unaware of the sticks…I caught him stuffing a couple of rocks, but maybe I didn’t catch him as fast as I thought I did). 100 bucks out the door to Mr. Rooter. And guess what? I am not really all that upset.

Ok. I don’t have spare Benjamins laying around. That part hurts a little. But, I do have the thing in perspective. Trey loves being outside. He loves playing with rocks and dirt and sticks. He is naturally curious. He is a young boy. He put two and two together and watched all that stuff disappear and probably had a blast doing it. It isn’t his fault that he clogged up the sewer line. He was just being curious.

Who is to blame? Me. It is my fault, because I knew the cap for the cleanout had a hole in it. I have walked by that thing hundreds of times and thought to myself, whoa, I hope nothing gets in there. Yeah, I know…dumb. I went to Lowes tonight and got a new cap. I could have saved a hundred bucks for a buck seventy six. Dave Ramsey calls that stupid tax. I paid 100 dollars extra for not taking care of the problem when I first saw it.

I can’t think of all of the times that something unfortunate has happened that I have gotten upset about that I could have prevented all together. I have had more of these times than I would like to admit. I have had things broken that I knew needed attention and could have been fixed. Things disappear that I should have put up in the first place. Had I done what I was supposed to the bad thing would have never had the chance to come around.

So, I choose to laugh at this one. My little teacher is hard at work. Trey has taught me and reminded me about a lot of things in life. Things that I need to get right now and teach back to him as he gets older. This lesson? Fix the hole in the pipe when you first see it and it will prevent issues later.

David Willis Lessons Learned, Life

I really miss that old truck…

Don’t you love it when something stupid you did a long time ago comes back up and still stings? Yesterday I had to borrow my father-in-law’s truck to haul some dirt for a garden that we are planting. He drives a mid 90’s model Chevy. It reminds me of my first pickup, a 1991 GMC Sierra. It was an awesome truck that I should have never traded away.

I got it from my parents right after I got married. They had it when I was in high school. It was the truck I got to drive on special occasions. It was the truck I took on my honeymoon. It even got stolen from me once and returned a month later. There was nothing wrong with it when I traded it off. I had the new car itch and had to have a sedan. I felt like it was my turn to get something new. Actually I felt entitled to it since Marixa had gotten her car the year before.

So, I took Marixa and my old truck to the auto dealership. I had my eye on a pontiac. My biggest requirement? I wanted something with a CD player. Yeah. Dumb. I know. I had no business being at that car lot. Marixa didn’t feel right about it the whole time, but I kept right on.

I can’t remember why, but the car I was looking at wouldn’t work, so the guys at the dealership pulled another one around. I had only looked at one car. At one dealership. I test drove the one they pulled around. And bought it. This seems even dumber now that I am writing it all down. I barely knew if the car was worth the price they were asking. This all happened in 2002.

Fast forward to the next year. I was miserable where I was working. So, I quit. I had no back up plan. No nothing. I didn’t have a job for 2 months and the next job I took was at a 9 thousand dollar pay cut. Did I mention I didn’t owe anything on my truck? I traded in no payments for a twelve thousand dollar loan. Again, dumb dumb dumb. And now, I had no money to pay for it. That all went out the window with the job I quit. I had to sell my new car…for almost half of what I paid for it.

Thankfully, the years have a way of dulling the pain. I miss that old truck, but I am grateful for the experience trading it in taught me. I don’t give in to the entitled feeling anymore. I would far rather drive an old pickup that is paid for than a newer car that would have my wallet bound in chains.

What dumb thing have you done because of you car? What did you learn from it?

David Willis Lessons Learned, Life

You’ve been down that road…its not where you want to be.

I don’t know if you are like me, but it is easy to get comfortable. You do the same things week in and week out. You watch the same TV shows. You eat the same things. You talk the same talk and dream the same dreams, but do little about it. Does this sound like you? I hope not, but I have a feeling that it probably is. I know I am like that more than I want to be. Isn’t there more to living?

How hard is it to do something new? Go somewhere different? Meet new people? The answer: it can be very hard. It is hard to do all of these things when we are stuck in a rut and when you only have one viewpoint on life. It is hard to look at any options outside of what is normal. It is hard to be anything, but what we have been. You may not want it to be that way, but it is easy. It is routine.

There is a line from the movie The Matrix that sums this up:

You have been down there. You have been down that road. You know exactly where it ends. I know that its not where you want to be. – Trinity speaking to Neo.


When the opportunity to do something new, something that might impact your life arises it is easy to bypass it and go down a road you have already traveled. That is not where I want to be though. I have walked all those paths before. I have seen what they have to offer. The only hope for growing beyond where I am must be on the path I haven’t taken. This is true for my writing, my reading, my faith, and other aspects of my life as well.

I have friends that are experiencing this first hand right now. They made a decision to do something radically different with their lives. They have uprooted their suburban way of doing things and are a few weeks from moving to a different country to do work that has immediate and lasting value. When the opportunity arose they could have picked the way of comfort and politely declined, but they didn’t. Now, they are about to embark on a journey like they have never experienced. I am happy for them. They are stepping out of the comfortable into the significant.

I strive to do the same with my daily choices. I choose the path of significance over the path of comfort. I choose to work out to make my body healthy. I choose to eat good for the same reason. I choose to fill my mind with knowledge. I choose to spend my money wisely and invest in the future. I choose to be the husband and dad I need to be for my family. If I see I am headed down a wrong path I choose to turn around.

I don’t want to go down the roads I have been down over and over. I know what is down there and I know it isn’t where I want to be.

David Willis Lessons Learned

Could 5 bucks really have prevented this?

We have had a leak in our bathroom for a little while now. I have kept it maintained and there hasn’t been any lasting damage, but I put off really finding out what the problem was until this morning. The solution? A 5 dollar part.

Fortunately this was a small drip and not a major issue? But, how many other things in life do we ignore only later to find out that major damage has been done because we didn’t address the issue when it was a five dollar problem?

I can think of many other examples of this. Addressing a cavity early prevents a root canal later. Frequent oil changes will prolong the life of the motor and prevent early breakdown. Apologizing and making things right today will keep a marriage far way from divorce later.

Moral of the story? Fix it while it is small and prevent a huge flood in the bathroom later.