Always know your competition

Always know your competition and deal with them appropriately.

Dang-nabbit I have been up and down this gravel-covered road and nothing. Zip, Nada, Not a blasted agate anywhere, I had been looking for weeks with no luck. What happened? Where were all the agates? Had I taken all of the available agates in the whole region? I was concerned, REALLY, concerned.

 I like to collect agates; it started when I was a little girl. There was a man down the road that would pay me 50 cents per pound. He used them to make jewelry.  This started my agate hunting adventure.

I have a large non-agate rock in my possession also (it’s on my mantel above the fireplace). It is just a normal gray rock about the size of a shoe. I have the words “my rock” painted on it with red finger nail polish. Why do I have this rock? I have no clue. Other then I was in the army at the time, in a place that I had never been before. Therefore, I took a piece of it, decided to carry it with me for the rest of my life.  

Anyways, I was baffled until one-day. I meet the neighbor’s adult son with his two boys 5 and 7 years of age out at the end of the driveway. I bent down to look at a potential agate. “Oh you collect agates to” he said.” We have been finding all kinds of great agate on this road.” “We even found one the size of a baseball on the corner of 110^th and Manning. It was great…bzzzzt….I could no longer hear a word he was saying. My mind was too busy screaming obscenities to him.

 There was a dagger in my heart. ” Really, I said feigning a smile. “Who gave you the right to hunt agates in my territory?” my mind continued to scream!

“Yah, it’s so much fun collecting rocks and we even got a rock tumbler,” the oldest boy yelled out.

“Really” I said. “I looked down at them and saw the glow in their little eyes, and their sweet little smiles.  “Wow, that’s great, I am really happy for you.” At that point, I realized I had more than enough agates in my possession.  I stepped down that day. I gave them the position of the official agate hunters of the territory.

After all, what am I going to do with all those rocks?  When I am dead and gone, my people will have no idea what to do with my rocks

So Always check the competition and make sure you deal with them appropriately.