I don’t like to interfere with the business dealings Nathan and Ryan have.  I am confident that they can handle them effectively and ethically.  A year ago I probably wouldn’t have included the word ‘ethically’ but given what’s happened since then, focusing on ethics has become pretty important.

Nathan has a little side business where he drives kids to and from school…for gas money.  If you read an earlier post where I wrote about two empty seats in his car – he has filled them both.  He no longer has to shell out any of his own money to fill up his tank.  Nice.

When it came to deciding how much to charge his passengers, he decided to leave it up to them to pay him what they thought was reasonable.  This has worked both for and against him.

Like a lot of kids, Nathan has a pretty good sense for fairness.  And he can pretty much back up his fairness arguments which he did for me when he was describing how he thought that the payment of one of the passengers was unfair. 

“I have to drive out of my way to pick him up.  That takes gas and extra time.  Besides, I’m saving his parents so much time; they don’t have to drive 13 miles to pick him up and then drive 13 miles to bring him home.  That alone should cost a little extra.”  He’s paying Nathan $5/week.

On the other hand, one of the other boys is paying $10/week.  I thought it was too much and actually talked to his mom who is a friend of mine.  She insisted, saying that the time she saved not having to drive him to school and not having to work her schedule around him was worth the $10.

And that’s how Nathan thinks, as well.  It’s not just the miles driven, but there’s most definitely a time factor involved.

Then there’s the kid who still hasn’t paid Nathan a cent since the beginning of school.  He’s a friend of the kid who’s mom pays Nathan $10.  I told Nathan he might want to get on top of that before the “bill” becomes too overwhelming.

“I’ll just keep bugging him about it every day until he pays.”

Really?  And how’s that going?   “It’s kind of awkward, but eventually he’ll get it.”

Hmmm…not so sure this is the best strategy.  But he’s got to figure that out on his own.  And because gas money is so important to him, it’ll be interesting to watch how this all unfolds.  Besides, he’s learning how to deal with people when there’s money involved.  And those two combinations can make for some pretty interesting discoveries.