Chapter Nine
‘First, you must factor in the cost of your stone.’
‘But the stone is free.’
‘Does Isaac take you to the island for free?’
‘No,’ Adam said, thoughtfully. ‘He doesn’t.’
‘And the cost of your tools?’
Adam remembered that he had broken a chisel during the week. The replacement cost was five coppers. Fontus continued to tally other costs: the rent for the stall, the cost of a shade if it should rain, and various other sundries. Adam was surprised when he realised it had all come to more than twenty coppers. He had simply not stopped to think of the cost of production.
Also, Adam knew he would one day have to leave Fontus’s home. The old man had been incredibly generous to him. He couldn’t take advantage of his kindness forever.
‘It’s true,’ Adam said. ‘There are many costs involved in running a business.’
‘A business owner has to find the line that divides profit from loss. He has to be able to pay to live—on days when he is well and those he is not.’
Adam had already noticed this. There were some stallholders who were at the market every day, even when they were sick. He recalled the day when a man had collapsed at his stall and had to be taken home on a makeshift stretcher by his friends.
‘So how much should I charge?’ Adam asked.
Fontus scratched his head. ‘‘I would suggest selling for one hundred,’ he said.
One hundred!?
‘That…that’s a lot more than I was planning,’ Adam stammered.
‘Your carvings are excellent and there are no others like them,’ Fontus said. He picked up one of the carvings Adam had finished that day—an intricately carved bear—and turned it over to inspect its base. ‘But you must carve your name on the base.’
‘Why?’
‘That will soon become obvious,’ Fontus replied with a knowing smile.
As tired as he was, Adam did as Fontus suggested. It was late, and his candle was burned down to a nub when Kara appeared with a bowl of food.
‘Hungry?’ she asked.
‘Yes. Thank you,’ Adam said.
As Adam ate the food in the dim candlelight, he studied Kara’s face as she looked around at the work he had done. Was it really only a matter of weeks that spanned the transition from a boy living on a farm to someone living in Prosperity and building an entirely new life? He shared his thoughts with Kara. The level of respect—and even friendship—had come a long way since that first day when Fontus had brought him to the home he shared with his daughter.
‘There is an old saying,’ she said. ‘The unturned page is always blank.’
Adam thought on that for a handful of seconds. ‘I didn’t know you were so philosophical.’
‘So you thought I was simply a pretty girl with no brains?’
‘Oh. I didn’t know you were pretty.’
Kara glared at him, and then they both burst out laughing. Adam was surprised. He had never seen her laugh so freely and it made her look more beautiful than ever.
‘You need to sleep,’ she said, wiping away the tears of laughter from her eyes. ‘Tomorrow is a big day.’
Adam was awakened early the next morning by the cheerful song of a bird that had perched just outside his window. Climbing from the bed, he quickly washed and dressed.
This is the day, he thought. This is the day it all changes.
He heard movement from elsewhere in the house and was surprised to see both Fontus and Kara appear at the doorway of his small room.
‘We are fighting over who will accompany you to the market,’ Fontus said.
‘I can carry everything myself,’ Adam reassured them. ‘I don’t want to take you away from your own business affairs.’
‘A journey with friends halves the distance.’
As they left the house and navigated the quiet dawn streets, Adam felt a mixture of excitement and fear. He couldn’t help but remember the last time he had gone to the market to sell his wares.
It was a disaster, he thought. A total failure.
Doubt began to twist at his senses.
What if the same thing happened again? What if he had spent all this money and time trying to build a business from his carvings, but no one wanted his goods? What if he wasn’t good enough?
Kara sidled up next to him. ‘Doubts?’ she said.
‘Is it that obvious?’
‘Your brow furrows in the middle when you’re worried.’
He told her of his concerns.
‘Nothing is so terrible that it can prevent you from changing direction,’ she said.
‘But my money is running out.’
‘Then you would need to quickly change direction,’ she said with a half smile.
By the time they reached the market, people were already setting up their stalls. Adam set up the table and placed his black cloth over it. A stall holder named Carlos recognised him and smiled.
‘Back again?’ the man asked. ‘You have more paintings?’
‘Not this time,’ Adam replied with—he hoped—a note of confidence in his voice.
It took Adam only a few minutes to lay his carvings out on the cloth. Fontus and Kara stood nearby and watched. When he was done, he looked up to see that an elderly man had already stopped at the table.
‘Where are these from?’ the man asked.
‘I made them.’
The man frowned. ‘Really?’ he said. ‘Who taught you?’
‘My father.’
He didn’t say anything for a moment. He picked up a statue of a bear—the same one that Fontus had picked up only the night before—and turned it over in his hands.
‘How much are they?’ he asked.
‘One hundred coppers,’ Adam said, reddening. It was a fortune and far more than they were worth. Maybe I should offer a lower price. The man must think him stupid.
‘That is quite expensive,’ the man said, continuing to turn the statue over in his hands and examine the fine detail over which Adam had laboured. ‘But the work is very good.’ He focused on the bottom. ‘Are you Adam?’
Adam nodded.
The man frowned. ‘Will you accept eighty?’
Eighty coppers!
Before Adam could speak up, Fontus was at his side. ‘Jeremiah,’ he said. ‘Are you still a haggler?’
‘Always. Why pay the full price when I can pay less?’
‘Quality costs.’
Jeremiah sighed. ‘You can’t blame a man for wanting a bargain,’ he said.
‘Of course.’
Reaching into his pocket, Jeremiah produced a handful of coins and handed them over. Numb with surprise, Adam nodded and watched him leave. Then he looked down at the coins in his hand. It was like watching a sunrise for the first time. The sounds and smells of the market fell away to nothing as he realised what had happened.
I sold one of my carvings, he thought. And I was paid one hundred coppers.
He looked up to see Kara grinning at him. ‘It’s a start,’ she said, drawing near. ‘A good start.’
Adam was still unable to speak.
‘Can we leave you now?’ Fontus asked. ‘Are you capable of speaking...breathing...?’
Laughing, Adam stirred himself. ‘Of course,’ he said, a feeling of confidence now replacing the earlier fear. ‘I’ll see you back home.’
Adam watched them disappear into the crowd. Then he noticed Carlos looking at him. The man smiled.
‘Well done,’ he said. ‘But we still have a long day ahead.’
The day passed with hundreds of people passing Adam’s stall, pausing to look at his wares. Many of them were interested and asked how much he was charging, but moved on when he told them. While Adam was sorely tempted to drop the prices, he kept in mind that first sale of the morning. In each case and without wavering, he politely—but firmly—repeated what he was charging.
By day’s end Adam had sold five carvings
. Arriving home, he felt as if he were walking on air. The day had been a complete success. He also understood why Fontus had told him to carve his name on the bottom of each piece—it meant people could identify his pieces in an instant. If things went well, Adam would soon be as famous as his sculptures.
Entering the doorway of Fontus’s home, he found Fontus and Kara had prepared a cake in celebration.
‘Well done,’ Fontus said as they gathered around the small table. ‘How did your first taste of business success feel?’
‘Like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.’
‘And you want to continue?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Then you must make plans to grow.’
‘To make my business larger?’
‘Indeed. A business must always be growing and seeking new ways to improve and expand.’
‘Why?’
‘Because its competition is usually trying to do just that—grow. A business that stays still will find itself overtaken by other businesses. If a business is not moving forward then it is moving backwards.’
Lesson 9: If a business is not moving forward then it’s moving backwards.