For those who missed it or were not struck by the headline 'I don't have to wear my money', Mr Plunkett is a man who has built up a relatively decent nest egg and is apparently not smitten by that all-pervasive desire to be ostentatious - to convince others that he has arrived.
The journey of his life, as reported by him, is one of thrift, sacrifice and circumspection after he left GraceKennedy almost a decade ago and moved to the US, turning down, he said, a US$85,000-a-year job and working at Home Depot for US$14 an hour.
He was basically being paid to learn and, as he told the reporter, "by the time I left Home Depot, I was a tiler, an electrician, carpenter, plumber. That is where I launched my construction business from. When I went to Home Depot, I could not even drive a nail. When I left Jamaica, I knew nothing about ceramic tiling and now I am the best of the best".
He says he now enjoys having the best home in the subdivision where he lives and driving a Mercedes-Benz, although he prefers to travel economy class and eats a patty occasionally.
Important lessons
Among the important lessons that could be drawn from his life story are the importance of delayed gratification, the necessity of sacrifice and the imperative of a vision. We have no reason to doubt Mr Plunkett's account, but are certain that the percentage of people who would turn down a US$85,000-a-year job to become an apprentice is minuscule.
For most persons who are not born into financially successful families, earned wealth will not come until they are well into their 40s, if at all. So Plunkett's story is also one of the necessity to postpone consumerism until one has built up sufficient assets to support the spending.
Far too often we are presented, deliberately or inadvertently, skewed pictures and role models of wealth where the material measure of a person is their conspicuous consumption and not their work ethic or financial prudence. In a country where many people seek to display that they are "of substance", from lavish parties to expensive cellular phones, whether or not they have really earned or have money to maintain their lifestyles, Mr Plunkett's story is striking.
And there is another thing. Many Jamaicans are averse to working with their hands, considering manual labour menial. However, they end up paying exorbitant sums for goods and services which demand just that. If more of us would work with our hands, we would not only get the satisfaction of a job well done for ourselves, by ourselves, but may also actually develop an income stream as well.
The second part of Garfield Plunkett's story is in today's Gleaner and we trust that, especially in these recessionary times, more persons will read and learn from his story of sacrifice and satisfaction.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.