Wouldn't it be great if you could just escape all this negativism by going to work? Dreamland! O'bama would have taken third place in the office politics where I worked. Sure, you can get ahead if your incapable of doing your job, and you're the bosses golf buddy -- or even worse, if you suck-up like a Hoover vacuum. But who, with any integrity, wants to sell their soul to the corporate Devil?
I knew early on I wanted to be in business for myself. My parents were self-employed and I figured "it's in the genes". After all, they were making a comfortable living running their liquor store, and since we lived in a house attached the store it seemed as if your job and your personal life were closely tied. What a shock I was in for!
In my early twenties I had a little bit of money, not very much, but a little. I wanted to get into business and found a small, local print-shop for sale. The owner of the shop was having trouble finding anyone as naive and gullible as me to buy it, so..., we made a deal. Ta-dah -- I was self-employed! My dream had come true -- wow, and I was only twenty-one.
What a disaster! Forget about the fact that I had absolutely no printing or graphic arts experience, I was twenty-one, I had barely any work-experience period. Well, I was lucky enough to make a go of it for a couple of years, but I got tired of being tied to that place fifty to sixty hours a week. After all, I was young. I wanted to go out with my friends, drink too much, throw up in the bushes, you know... live the good life! Luckily, I was able to find someone equally as naive and gullible as I was, and... we made a deal.
Purchasing became my career after that. I worked for a few companies over the next fifteen years buying products I had no interest in. It was safe, I had benefits -- my wife liked that part. I, however, was bored out of my mind. I would have shot myself if I'd owned a pistol, but as was my luck, I owned a shotgun and my arms were too short to pull the trigger.
There was something missing in my life. I just wasn't content.
I heard a certain real estate developer from New York (with weird hair) give an interview around this time, and he nailed it for me -- it was passion! "You must be passionate about what you do to be successful", he said. Shortly after that, I closed my first real sale -- convincing my wife I could start and run a successful business on my own. I quit my job and took the plunge!
It took a few years, but it worked. We've steadily grown the business from zero sales dollars to multi-million dollars per year. We went from an average, modest income to spending more money on our show horses than most people make in a year.
How did it happen? Persistence and passion. If you are passionate about what you're doing everyday, persistent becomes second nature. After all, giving up on something is really easy if you have nothing emotionally invested in it.
Using passion to create success is sure fire! Granted, there has to be a market for it. Just because you are passionate about mountain goats doesn't mean you going to convince me to own one.
Two things I've learned through experience are, first, you can become passionate about just about anything bringing you success, and two, it's not necessary to re-invent the wheel. If you've observed a proven system, a successful path, take it! No one gets paid for pride. Learn from those who know, follow their lead. You'll someday be the leader for the next crop of up-and-comers.
You can't steal second base with your foot on first base! (I love that line!)
