8-Year-Old Boy — Who Applied For Dishwashing Job to Buy an Xbox — Gets Huge Surprise From Restaurant

Get out there and DO IT!

That’s exactly what eight-year-old elementary student Nash Johnson thought to himself when he decided he wanted to buy an Xbox — do it myself.

"I just wanted to find my friends that were on Xbox and play Xbox," said the youngster from Lexington, Kentucky. So, Nash took matters into his own hands and figured out his next steps.

To get the Xbox, Nash needed money. To get the money, Nash needed a job. And to get the job, Nash needed to make himself an online resume. Easy right? For an adult — sure. But for an eight-year-old? Maybe not...

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The third grader was on fall break at school when he decided to find a job that would help him to earn enough for an Xbox.

Nash applied for a dishwasher position at Drake’s, a nearby restaurant. "This will be my first job ever!" he wrote on his application. "I'm very good at washing the dishes," Nash told NBC News.

But there was one problem: all employees need to be 16 years old to work at Drake's Restaurant. So, Nash told the truth and said that he was under the age of 18. 

The application caught the eye of Drake’s kitchen manager, who shared the bizarre application with Mark Thornburg, the chief operating officer at Drake's

"At the very bottom of the application, he put that he was eight years old … and when the kitchen manager saw the application, she just assumed that he forgot to put the one in front of the eight. And so, she called him in very innocently," Thornburg told Good Morning America. "The number that he put on [the application] was his grandmother's house and … she asked for Nash and Nash gets on the phone, and he said, 'Well, I'm only eight years old.' "

Nash’s mom, Belinda Johnson, had a good laugh when she learned her son had applied for the job. But she wasn’t the least bit surprised.

"That kid is not afraid to fail. He's a go-getter," she said proudly.

"Financial literacy is really important in our household," Belinda said. “Nash has money jars where he learns to save, give, and spend. Getting the job at Drake's was how he was going to earn more cash for his ‘spend’ jar. 

With the price of an Xbox starting at $300, Nash looked at his ‘spend’ jar filled only with coins and knew what he had to do.

“I can get more money if I get a job that (pays) more money than doing my chores at home at $5 a week." 

How a Restaurant Manager Surprised a Young Xbox Fan

After seeing Nash’s original application, Thorburg decided “'We’ve got to do something for this young man. He's obviously very special,' adding that in his 30 years in the restaurant industry, Nash was the youngest applicant he’d ever come across.

Although Drake’s couldn’t hire Nash due to his age, they instead planned an incredible surprise for the young boy.

The restaurant team invited Nash and his family to join them at their hiring orientation and later, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the company's new location in the Leestown area of Lexington. Thornburg personally surprised Nash with a customized Drake's uniform and the brand-new Xbox he had been fantasizing about. 

"I was shocked! Very shocked," Nash exclaimed.

"He was like, 'I’m so happy. I don't know why I want to cry though, mom.' And I said, 'Sweetheart, that's a normal reaction,'" Johnson recalled, saying that "Christmas came a little early."

Thornburg added, "I tell a lot of people he would have been just as happy with his uniform because his eyes got about as big as a softball. I mean, he was so excited when I gave him his uniform! But then obviously when I got the Xbox out for him and he got to open that up, it is, to say the least, it's changed the little guy's life for sure."

Despite getting the surprise of his life, he still wants to get a job at Drake’s in the future. 

"I wish I had both the job and the Xbox," Nash teased.

Belinda hopes that Nash’s work ethic stays with him as he gets older. And her take on Nash’s story?

"Don't be afraid to jump out there and go for it. Go get it. You want something … go get it!”