Boy Slipped Marine A Secret Note. He Read It & Immediately Called For Backup!
The Young Entrepreneur’s Master Plan
Up in his room, Keenan’s mind was a rollercoaster. There was a part of him that was terribly sad.
That part knew that his mom was going to die. It frightened him and made him want to cry uncontrollably.
But there was another part of him too. This was the part that could make what his mom called “Keenan plans.”
The young boy pushed his sadness and fear to the back of his mind and focused on his “Keenan plan” mind. He decided at that moment that he was going to make this the best Christmas his mom had ever had.
He had absolutely no idea how yet, but the decision was made. And Keenan knew if he put his mind to something he could make it happen.
The next day at school, Keenan couldn’t concentrate. The teachers in his first three classes of the day admonished him for daydreaming.
They were right; he was daydreaming, but he wasn’t about to tell them why or what about—not yet anyway. By lunchtime, Keenan had figured out a plan, and by the time he headed to the bus stop after school, that plan had solidified.
The bus stopped a block away from the apartment. Keenan broke into a run the moment he stepped off the bus.
There was a book he needed right now; it was on the shelf in his bedroom. That was the last piece of the puzzle.
As soon as he got home, Keenan bolted to his room and looked through his bookcase. “Practical Steps for Young Entrepreneurs”—that was the book he was looking for.
He spent a few hours reading and rereading one chapter. He awoke before his mom the next morning and prepared her breakfast.
He opened his mother’s bedroom door with his foot and carried the tray over to her.
“My beautiful boy,” she said when she woke up. “You are truly my angel.”
While she pecked at her food, he asked her the big question. Could he go to the mall in the city after school?
“What do you want to do there?” his mom asked with a frown.
“It’s something for school. I have to interview a bunch of people, you know, ask them questions and write down their answers,” he said.
He hated to lie to his mom, but this bit was crucial if his plan was going to work. His mother frowned and hesitated, but she eventually agreed to let him go for one hour.
Keenan almost got detention for not paying attention in class during the first period. That would be a disaster, so he upped his game.
When break time came, he settled in a far corner of the cafeteria and started writing. After much scratching out, rewriting, and correcting, he was satisfied with what he had written.
Now came the second part of his plan. The book said fifty, so he’d have to make fifty copies of his note.
He rushed down to the administration building. The break was almost over.
Keenan sighed with relief when he noticed an open copier. For the rest of that day at school, he was calm; he’d done what he needed to do.
A Call to the US Marines
At just after 3:00 p.m., Keenan stepped off the bus and walked onto the mall. The book had said fifty.
He looked around. Yep, he had chosen well; there were more than fifty people here.
He thought again about what his book about young entrepreneurs said, especially the chapter about marketing. It said once you have your business plan together, you have to do intensive marketing to set things in motion.
And the book said you have to interact with at least fifty people about your idea to start with. Keenan was set on finding these fifty people and giving them each one copy of the note he had painstakingly written.
It would only take one person for it to work. Just one.
It had to work. Andrew Styles had joined the US Marines three years before.
Currently, he was part of the squad that guarded the West Wing of the White House. He was off duty and strolling down the mall to clear his head.
That’s when the young boy came up to him and slipped him the note. There was something about the kid that he knew even before he opened and read the note.
When he finally unfolded and read the note, he swallowed hard to stop his tears. This kid needed help and that’s what the Marines did: they helped.
Andrew fished his cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number.
“Everybody,” he said at the end of the conversation. “No excuses. We have an assignment.”
