The Panic Call, Work Ethic, and a Secret Sauce for Life
"If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is."
My phone rang at 5:09 am, it was my daughter. I picked up, but only heard static. I called her back, no answer. It’s the kind of call that puts a touch of fear in a father. She called back and said “Dad, did I butt dial you?” I laughed, “I think you did, what are you doing? “ She apologized and said, “I was just heading home from work, I worked the 4 am to 7 am shift at the rec center.” She’s in Indiana, I’m in Colorado, there is a two hour time difference.
We chatted, reminded each other we loved each other and we hung up. I continued making my coffee and began thinking how cool it was that my daughter gets up at 3:30 am to go to work. Then I realized, my son, also is up at 4:30, heading to the gym by 5:00 and at work by 6:30.
As a child I was taught work ethic, it seems I might have passed on that trait to my kids. I’ve written a few times, if you want to be successful, do three things. Get an education, work hard, and sacrifice. This is one of my core messages, and I will continually share it until I die. That is the secret sauce of success.
I got back to work yesterday; I love my work. I worked from 5:00 am to 5:00 pm and had a smile the entire day. Vacation is nice, but work gives life meaning. I love building our company, personally growing, and helping our team develop into successful, amazing humans being.
I had five meetings yesterday and will have five today. My schedule is full; I’m going to work a little tomorrow as well. I’ve got an appointment with a fellow entrepreneur and will help him build his template for his new business. We’re talking risk, but I’ll help connect him with a new business attorney, a CPA, a financial planner, and a host of other professionals that will help him launch a successful new business.
Life is about the human connection. Life is about helping others, finding pain, healing pain, and showing love. I cooked some mean stir fry last night and then coached our new business development rock star on some new verticals, some new phone strategies, and how to reverse common rejections. I said, when you are prospecting, it’s not important what you are selling, it is only important to connect with your prospect on an emotional level. If you can get them laughing, and use a pattern interrupt, your success will improve.
So it’s Friday, did you kill it this week? Did you get that project you had marked to complete or did you get distracted? Life is about planning, taking small bites of big projects, moving the ball forward every day. If life is a football game, you have four downs to get the ball 10 yards, don’t think you have to throw a 50-yard pass every play. In life, that 3 yard gain is just as important as that long bomb down the field. No matter your vocation, job, or station in society, you can have an impact, but do it in small bites.
You have a weekend to do anything you choose. You can watch others on a plastic box do life, or you can get up off your ass and do your own life. Don’t waste this weekend, use it, improve yourself, go outside, it’s going to be cold. Enjoy the cold, walk, look at the trees that are shedding those leaves, and remember you too are shedding your old self every day, you are not who you were last year and that tree evolves, like you, every year.
One of our team members gained a new client yesterday. He sent an email that simply stated: “Teamwork makes the dream work.” I met him about 3:00 pm, he was smiling. He has a kind smile, a big smile, people want to connect with him, and he is a natural born educator and a hell of a salesperson. This young man was sitting in a cubicle the last two years of his life; we rescued him and now can watch him spread his wings.
If you work in a cubicle, why not try and get out of that workstation and do something that allows you to fly, spread your wings, impact society on a mobile basis. Today, with technology, you can work where you are.
Stop doing the same things you did last week, last month, and last year. Look at your life and change just one little thing. Make one more prospecting call, walk a little more, do some pushups, change your nutritional intake from junk to good fuel and watch your body morph into something you never thought possible.
Today is a gift; tomorrow is an opportunity, next week is the week you could start to change your life. If you don’t love your life, it is your fault. It is not your parent's fault, the economy, the government, you can change your future just like that tree that gets to shed its leaves every year and gets that new foliage every spring.
It’s almost 6:00 am, I’ve got to plan my day, and then work my plan. I’m going to change the world, I am, and I think you can help me, but first, get an education, work hard, and sacrifice.
"If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is."