A Month in Brooklyn

The Background

I met Eli, a talented young man who produces videos, in Israel when we were on the way to a location we were using in a video we were making. He told me the following story from when he lived back in the States.

AS

 a young man, I took my first job as a plumber with a Brooklyn-based company. By the time I got married and moved to Lakewood a few years later, I was very good at what I did, and while I kicked around the idea of starting my own business, I was too afraid to take the risk. Many new businesses fail, and I needed to bring home a paycheck at the end of the month, so I found a job working for someone else.

There was one problem: I wasn’t making enough money. I worked up the courage to talk to Zecharia, my boss, and ask for a raise.

“Eli, I wish I could pay you more,” he said. “Honestly, you’re worth double what I pay you. But I just can’t afford that without damaging my bottom line.”

I continued working for Zecharia because I wasn’t ready to take the risk of starting my own company, but I knew I needed to make more money to support our growing family.