Touching Story & Awesome Teamwork
May 12th, 2008On Saturday my daughter Molly, age 6, wanted to run a lemonade stand. “What a perfect opportunity to teach her about business”, I thought. I asked her what she wanted to do with the money that she made. She replied, “I want to give it away”. Wow.
To help her identify where to give the money, I asked her a few questions to narrow it down. I asked if she wanted to help people, the earth or animals. She said, “people”.
Me: “What kind of people”.
Molly: “Kids”.
Me: “Kids who don’t have much, or kids who are sick”.
Molly: “Kids who don’t have much”.
After seeing some news coverage of the cyclone disaster in Myanmar, Molly decided to give her profits to help children in Myanmar. In case you are wondering how to get money there, despite the resistance of the local government, visit Avaaz.org
So on Saturday morning, we helped Molly set up the lemonade stand. With the help of her 5-year old brother, Simon, she raised $40.50 which we immediately donated online.

How this relates to team is that I had the chance to observe the two kids in action. I was gardening, so I wasn’t really helping them much. The two of them worked together brilliantly, naturally using each one’s strengths.
Molly is shy, so Simon would recruit passers-by with his opening line: “Would you like some lemonade?” he’d shout to people on the other side of the street. Molly would add either “…or some iced tea?” or “…it’s for kids in Burma”.
Molly would usually pour the drinks while Simon made sure everyone paid. If they had a disagreement, they resolved it quickly and focused back on the customer and delivering their service.
I also noted that when Simon lost interest (he’s only 5!), the system broke down…Molly had a much harder time getting customers because she didn’t have Simon delivering the opening line.
It was great to see them work together and using the skills and behaviours that are sometimes so hard to come by in organizations. Things like: allocating roles, collaboration, leadership and communication.
They were a great team and Molly’s leadership in raising money for charity was particularly moving.
My name is Andrew Long. I am an entrepreneur, husband, father, music lover and sometimes an athlete. My vision is a world in which everyone loves their work. Through the work of