Girl Scouts USA likes to promote the educational value of building your own cookie business and being a #cookieboss. But some lessons you learn aren’t always talked about, but they’re the most valuable.

Each year, my daughter desperately wants to earn the 1,000 box prize for cookie sales in our council. But I’ll be honest: We’re not claiming to be a “cookie boss” any time soon.

But here are four lessons my daughter has learned in Girl Scout cookie sales these last six years. No badge will cover it, no patch will flaunt it but the lessons will stay forever.

Achieving your goals takes work. Door to door cookie sales are fun the first hour, but the turn downs take their toll. Especially in pouring rain (today) and snow and falling temperatures (promised for tomorrow). But you push through it and do your best.

Despite your efforts, sometimes, you’ve got to readjust your goals. No matter how badly my daughter has wanted the ipod, the American Girl doll, and now the week at resident camp, we’ve maxed at 200 boxes a year between neighborhood sales and booths. We are just not a booth-loving troop, and that is okay. Instead, we look at a “second” goal in addition to our pie-in-the sky goal. Even if it’s a goofy stuffed giraffe.

There’s also more than one way to reach a solution. My daughter wants more than anything to spend a week at resident camp with her best friend. I’d love to do this, but my husband lost his job last year, and so far has only been able to find seasonal and part-time work. Rather than say no to resident camp, we cut a deal. As I’d like to coupon more, my daughter is now in charge of managing our family’s coupons. We’ll set aside the money saved from the coupons into a summer camp fund for her, and with several months’ notice, she should be able to achieve whatever costs the camp dough from sales doesn’t cover.

Finally, there’s more to business than being the best. And this I was reminded of much today. We skipped the street her best friend and fellow scout was on, because she was helping another friend in an emergency. But then I noticed a pattern. Each time she found a family who had a scout in the home, she “gave up” that street so that the other scout could sell to her neighbors, even though it may have cost her a sale. And that, I can say as a mom, makes me proudest of all.

What lessons has your scout learned from participating from cookie sales? Share your stories below!