Review Of Esphyr Slobodkina's Caps For Sale

"Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" These words from Esphyr Slobodkina’s 1938 classic children’s book, Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business, have had a profound impact on who I am and who I want to be. The book is a folktale about a cap peddler who wanders through town selling the wares he balances on his head, as naughty monkeys try to snatch his caps as he naps under a tree. The naughty monkeys enthralled my siblings with their entertaining pranks, but I, at the age of four or five, was more fascinated by how someone could make a profit by selling the caps on his head with such minimal effort. My mother remembers me asking, “Why only fifty cents? If he asked for sixty cents or sixty-five cents wouldn’t

I sold lemonade, performed yard work, walked dogs, and distributed leaflets around town for local businesses. At nine, I ran a screening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in my backyard. I put up flyers, set up a concession stand, and arranged seating for 50 people. 75 of my closest friends, neighbors, family, and complete strangers showed up. Revenue for the event surpassed $200; not bad for a nine year old! I was hooked on business.
As I grew, my exposure to the world of finance did as well. At the age of 12, I was discussing syndicated finance over the dinner table with my father who, at that time, worked at Bankers Trust’s Structured Finance Group. We would discuss how syndicate banks would loan money to companies - a method known as structured financing - in order to spread the risk of a borrower defaulting on his payment across multiple lenders. I was fascinated by finance, and so my desire to learn and understand

When I was 15, my father founded a small real estate firm, and I was tasked with keeping a record of the monthly rents, bank deposits, and monthly reporting. After proving my financial acumen, I was assigned to calculate the internal rate of return (IRR) of a given property and to determine whether and at what price to pursue that investment. The exposure I had to my father’s business forced me to deal with questions like: What is the value proposition of a given property, what are its cash flow projections, and how does it fit into a diversified portfolio holding? These problems allowed me to gain a better appreciation for portfolio management, risk and exposure, and the financial crisis of 2008.
Currently, my brother and I run a small online business selling customized Judaica (customizedchallahcovers.com). My responsibilities include marketing our products across various consumer markets and analyzing correlations between sales data and demographics. Our recent media campaign was a tremendous success and sales increased 24% from last year. The business continuously provides me with challenging opportunities and I am always learning new things to keep the business on target. It’s fun and it doesn’t even feel like