By 
Preface: An entertaining bedtime story that provides some fundamental life lessons for your children, such as work ethic, honesty, responsibility, and simple business principles. Recommended age: 6-10.
Once upon a time there was a good boy named Andy Workman who lived with his parents in Freedomville, a small town with a school, a library, a fire station, a police department, and many stores. In Freedomville, everyone had an equal chance to work and live however they wanted.
Andy was proud of his school. His teachers thought he was special because he learned his lessons quickly, studied at night, and always completed his homework on time. He also loved to read and would go to the library regularly or visit the local bookstore. He liked adventure books, trips abroad and humor. However, his favorite books were about mechanics and how to build or fix things.
Andy’s parents also thought that he was special. Although they didn’t have much, they were proud of his little house and kept it clean. They all worked hard around the house. Andy’s job was to mow the lawn and sweep the garage. Even though Andy was only eleven years old, he did a very good job. So much so that his father would give him a small weekly allowance that Andy would save.
The neighbors were so impressed by the way Andy mowed his father’s lawn that, one by one, they began hiring him to mow their lawn as well. Andy worked hard and did a good job that impressed the neighbors. He would never let them down and the neighbors would pay Andy for his hard work, which he would save with his allowance.
One day Andy’s dad asked him, “What are you going to do with all your money?”
“I’m thinking of a couple of things, Dad. First, I want to buy a new bike to ride to school. And I want to buy Mr. Smithers’ old lawn mower that I want to fix up.”
“But then you’ll have two lawn mowers,” said Andy’s dad, “you can’t push two lawn mowers, can you?”
“That’s right. My friend Tommy will work with me and we can cut more grass and make more money.”
So Andy bought his new bike and the old lawnmower he fixed up.
A short time later, Andy and his friend Tommy were mowing all the grass on their block and earned a lot of money for their efforts. Andy saved his money but every once in a while he bought a book to read.
Andy’s new bike was big and shiny and fast. Everyone at school liked him, even Sammy Servant, the class bully. Sammy was bigger than Andy and would scare a lot of kids. He would often ask the other kids for lunch money from his cousin, Harry Havenot, a lazy bully who was smaller than Sammy and not very bright.
When Sammy saw the new bike, he called Andy.
“I noticed your bike, Andy,” Sammy said. “You know my cousin Harry just has an old bike that doesn’t work very well.”
Andy knew about the useless bike that was the school prank.
Sammy continued, “You seem to be doing pretty well with your lawn service, and you have more money than Harry and me. I think it would be fair if you traded your bike for Harry’s, wouldn’t it?” and he looked at Andy menacingly.
Of course, Andy didn’t think it was fair, but he was afraid to fight Sammy, and he traded his bike for Harry’s.
Somehow Andy was able to get the old bike home, but it wasn’t easy because the chain was constantly falling off. When he got home, he took the bike apart in his garage, fixed it up and cleaned it. He even painted it. It seemed to Andy that no one had ever looked after the bike. When he finished, he didn’t look too bad. He drove well and was no longer an embarrassment.
Andy didn’t hear his father come up behind him in the garage. “Whose bike is this, Andy?” he asked, “And where is the new one?”
Andy swallowed hard because he was embarrassed about how he allowed Sammy Servant to bully him. “Well dad, it’s like that…” and he confessed the problem to him.
“Well, this will never work,” the father said and called the school principal to discuss the problem. When he finished, he told Andy, “I spoke to your manager and he assured me that he will solve the problem tomorrow. You will get your bike back.”
Andy was delighted.
The next day, the headmaster had Sammy and Harry return Andy’s bike, which was already worn out from being carelessly thrown by Harry. “We sorry!” they said reluctantly under the director’s gaze.
As the boys traded bikes, Harry was amazed at how good his old bike looked and worked, which was so much better than the day before. Even though he now liked his old bike, he still treated it badly and in just a few days he scratched it like before.
Andy took his bike home and had it polished like new. From then on, he kept it locked up and away from Harry.
There was no more trouble until the last week of the school year when Sammy cornered Andy again. “Andy, you’re a good student, aren’t you? You don’t get anything but A’s, do you?”
Andy agreed that he did.
Sammy continued, “Well, Harry has a problem. He might fail and have to repeat fifth grade. I’m sure you don’t want that to happen, do you? During this week’s final, I want you to let Harry copy your answers. And you’d better leave it or you’ll have trouble with me.”
Andy was aware of the dangers of cheating on tests. He could be suspended from school and face other penalties, not to mention letting his parents down.
“No, I’m not going to have that,” Andy said surprisingly defiantly, “I worked too hard for my grades and I’m not going to risk ruining my record just because Harry didn’t do his work. It would be one thing for you to ask me to help you study for the test, but it’s quite another to cheat.And Andy looked at the two of them until Sammy finally backed down.A good thing, too, since Andy was prepared to fight them, win or lose.
Many years passed and Andy grew up to be a fine young man. His lawn mowing service made a lot of money that he used to grow his business. Within a few years, Andy’s company had several employees, and he cut most of the grass in Freedomville. The company also helped pay for his studies at the local university where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Sammy and Harry also grew up. Harry did not do well at school and eventually dropped out and was left homeless. Sammy graduated from high school and went to work for local government, where he enforced local rules and ordinances, like posting street signs and making sure businesses like Andy’s didn’t make too much noise when they were working.
From time to time, Sammy would accuse one of Andy’s employees of breaking the rules, but if he paid him any money, he wouldn’t report it. Of course, the clerk hadn’t broken any rules at all, it was just Sammy’s way of trying to get extra money. When Andy found out about this, he went to see Sammy and asked him to stop bothering his employees or he would tell the police. Sammy backed away, but he was angry that he couldn’t scare Andy anymore.
Jealous of Andy’s success, Sammy came up with an idea to cause him more trouble. He proposed a new law to tax people who own lawnmowers and that the money would be used to support poor homeless people in the city, like his cousin Harry’s.
Andy did not like this idea. If it became law, the company he worked for would have to pay for slackers like Harry. He didn’t think this was fair. Andy told all of his friends and clients about the unfair law. If it passed, he would have to raise the prices of lawn care. Andy was so persistent that when election time came around, Sammy’s tax bill failed to pass and everything went back to normal.
Shortly after, Andy was walking downtown when he ran into Sammy and Harry. Sammy was angry that Andy had helped defeat his tax plan. However, before he could say anything, Andy reached into his pocket and pulled out some money which he gave to Harry. This surprised both Sammy and Harry.
“Why did you give him money? I thought you were stingy and greedy,” Sammy asked.
“Me neither,” Andy explained, “I don’t mind helping people when I can, that’s my decision and no one else’s, but I refuse to let anyone tell me how I should spend my hard-earned money. It’s not their business.”
Harry complained, “You’re luckier than us, Andy.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it, guys. Was I lucky to get good grades in school or was it because I studied hard? Was I lucky to build my business from nothing or did I work hard? I think the answer is obvious. You think the world owes you its life. It doesn’t. Every day is a blessing, we can make of it what we want. We can succeed or we can fail, but at least we must take responsibility and try to do our best. things. And if we fail, hopefully someone will lend us a hand, but it’s up to each of us to pick ourselves up and move on. If you want something, you just have to work hard to earn it. Simple as that.”
Sammy and Harry started to think about what Andy said. They knew that they had tried to cheat life and realized that he was telling the truth. And if Andy could do it, why can’t they? “Is it too late for us to change?” they asked Andy.
“It’s never too late to start. Would you like a job for me in my landscape service business? I promise you nothing but hard work and the resulting benefits, like good pay and some self-respect.”
“When do we start?” they asked Andy.
“How about right now?” and they shook hands.