Dont Judge A Nenek...

...by her kain batik basahan...

Before cuti sek, Yanti, one of our transporters repeatedly told me yg sorang nenek ni nak suruh pick up her cucu from Q-dees next year. Nenek tu nak masukkan her cucu di Q-dees. Yanti tak boleh fetch cucu nenek tu coz next year schedule dia dah lain. Told Yanti not to worry coz we have other transporters, some more nenek tu tak dtg register pun lg cucu dia.

I totally forgot about that nenek, until Teacher Aishah, passed me a RM50 note & said, 'Kak Emy, ada nenek jual nasi lemak tepi rumah babysitter anak Aishah bg RM50, dia suruh book tpt utk cucu dia". I told Aishah, I would go see that Nenek later & tell her about our fees.

Dont get me wrong. I tak memilih customers. When I 1st started, bila I showed parents our prog, ada yg teruja but bila tengok fees, ada yg mcm frust je. It was kinda sad bila tengok muka mereka berubah. So, masuk 2nd year sampai sekrg, when parents call, I terus trg let them know our fees for a year. Kalau they feel they can afford, diaorg akan dtg, so mostly yg dtg, yg mmg can afford, just nak lebih meyakinkan diri mereka dgn pilihan yg akan dibuat, also nak tengok anak diaorg suka ke tak. 

10 minutes later, a nenek, bears an uncanny resemblance to my late grandma, dgn pakai kain batik basahan was outside the gate. She told me dia dtg nak confirm register cucu dia. Dia mula story, cucu dia dulu gi sek tu....adalah yg dia tak berkenan. I told her straightforward that our fees are slightly higher than her cucu's previous kindy. She insisted nak tengok fees.

Dlm sembang2, I asked nenek tu anak dia kerja apa? Tukang masak, she said while her eyes still scrutinising our fees.

"Sama mcm tahun lepas", she said suddenly. I was taken aback.

"Makcik pernah dtg tahun lepas?"

"Pernah"

She put me to shame - dia tidak pernah menjejakkan kaki ke universiti, what more Faculty of Law, UM, dia tidak pernah jd peguam, she's only a nasi lemak seller, she's 63 yo but ingatan dia lebih kuat dr saya.

Mind you, dia juga tahu fees other kindies around our area yg saya sendiri tak tau.

Dia sambung lg,

"Kalau anak makcik taknak byr pun, makcik boleh byr"

My teachers & I looked @ each other in disbelief. Dlm hati tertanya-tanya "from income jual nasi lemak?"

She could read our mind

"O, makcik bukan jual nasi lemak je, makcik ada tanah kat kpg yg makcik pajak kat car wash. Sebulan boleh dpt income RMx,xxx".

Haha...jgn marah, ckp org putih lg makcik ni.

Nenek ini, I believe tidak pernah baca buku Robert Kiyosaki or other financial books or attend financial seminars mcm saya, she may never heard of passive income, but her passive income lebih byk dr gaji saya.

So, I gave her a copy of our fees schedule & my card, asking her to show it to her daughter & son in law. Convinced her that if she changes her mind, I hv no problems refunding the RM50 to her. Its my policy to refund any amount of deposit paid to us if customers change their mind.

Dia sambung lg,

"Insya allah boleh byr coz anak makcik baru je naik pangkat jd Asst Manager kat O*e W*rld Hotel & menantu makcik chef kat hotel yg sama".

OMG! When she said tukang masak, what was on my mind - tukang masak kat restoran tomyam...

Moral of the story...dont be fooled by a nenek's kain batik basahan, she may earn more than u...