Fouling Off Pitches

ther than the tried and true cliches we hear from baseball players these days during post-game interviews, add, "I got a pitch in my zone" or "I stayed within my zone." In other words, he didn't swing at crap. He got a good pitch and he turned it into a hit. But, you know, it doesn't always work out like that even when we get a good pitch to hit.

The other day I met with a former executive director of a large city Junior Achievement (JA) branch. Above all others, this is the group I want to pick up Hooey Savvy because they specialize in financial literacy programs and already serve 4 million students in the U.S. every year. In other words, I dug in and figured I'd get a BP fastball that I'd smack out of the park. What I got was chin music.

I learned that JA creates its own materials, ie, its own books and programs on financial literacy. I also learned that local branches must buy these materials from headquarters and that these materials form the foundation off which the branches work. The branches can use materials that do not originate from headquarters, but only as supplemental material. In addition, I learned that JA is a big bureaucracy and only reviews the materials for specific grades once every three to six years.

For as thick in the head as I am, the prospect of getting dusted by JA for the next few years sounds about as much fun as a Nolan Ryan headlock beat down.

On the fridge I keep the following quote: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer" (Einstein). Consider Einstein the Paul O'Neill or the Johnny Damon of physics - fouling off pitch after pitch, staying alive, grinding down the pitcher, till he got one in his zone he could drive.

Which is where I am with Hooey. I've fouled off a few good pitches and I may have to foul off a few more. But the deeper I get in the at bat the better a feel I get for what's coming.

In other news, I am close to agreeing with an illustrator to ink up Cookie-Wise Pablo - the 32 page picture book version. She'll need a couple months, but hey, it might just be ready for the 2012 holiday season. Also, thanks to John Odell at the National Baseball Hall of Fame I have some leads on vendor and usher jackets from back in the day for The Boston Squeeze. Of the photos John and the Hall of Fame's photo department provided, this is my favorite.

The Marshmallow Test

aking progress incrementally has never been my strong suit. I tend to jump ahead - way ahead. But it's getting better. Now that I'm aware of it, I can write down my distant goal and then work backwards to find all the steps necessary to achieve it.

Case in point: Hooey Savvy's Cookie-Wise Pablo. A children's book on financial education: 27 chapters, 80+ songs and one budget dance. It'll be one tome, I reasoned, so parents and librarians wouldn't have to buy 27 separate books, which they wouldn't do anyway, they'd buy two or three if I was lucky, but they'd miss out on 90% of what I wanted to get across and nothing would change.

So have I changed my tune? Kinda.

While re-reading it recently, I came across my favorite chapter which I named the book after. "Cookie-Wise Pablo" is the marshmallow test in story form. What's the marshmallow test? Hey kid, do you want one marshmallow now or two later? Test after test has shown that kids that take the two later, that delay gratification, that plan ahead and save, that wait for the better deal, do better in life in the long run. If I had to make one single point about personal finance it would be: Wait for the two marshmallows, kid.

So I've extracted that chapter from the book, introduced Pablo in simpler more general terms, and am going to go with my best foot forward: A more traditional 32 page picture book about the most important thing I can say about personal finance.

It's far easier to digest. And hey, if folks like it and they ask for more, there's another 26 chapters waiting.

I've also returned to writing The Boston Squeeze which is a project I just enjoy getting lost in.