I barely blinked as I watched videos on Youtube of this “gentleman grafter,” as he is called by Vanity Fair, selling peelers on the streets of New York and in the process probably make more money than your average New Yorker.

Courtesy of Get Rich Slowly, I also found this amazing May 2006 piece by Howard Kaplan on Joe Ades where he said:

At the end of each day he returns with his gear to a commodious three-bedroom apartment on Park Avenue, the home that he shares with his present wife, Estelle. (In spite of the polished ways of the patterers, their typical abode was the “vagrant hovel.”) Then it’s out again for an early dinner in a style unheard of in London Labour. Six nights a week, accompanied by Estelle, he hits some of the biggest-name restaurants in town—Elio’s, Jean Georges, Milos, Centolire. He never has trouble getting a table. In the soft light his hands glow pink from the half-hour hot-water-and-nailbrush treatment he performs as part of his evening toilette.”

Yeah, and you thought he was poor.

If you’re stuck in a career, 10 minutes invested in watching Joe Ades pitch his $5-peeler will teach you a few things about making sure your career—whether as a salesman, office worker, admin guy, entrepreneur etc.—brings home the biggest bacon you can find.

Some lessons from the Joe Ades business school on the streets of the Big Apple:

1. do something you love to do and sell something you believe in,
2. know your craft in and out,
3. find the best mentors and learn from them,
4. keep reading books for personal improvement,
5. be willing to get your hands dirty and work really hard,
6. don’t underestimate little things like good manners (in Joe Ades case being a “gentleman” from the suits he wore to his well-cared for fingernails), good hygiene or small amounts of money.

(Part two of career planning tomorrow.)