Keep It SIMPLE

You Can't Decide The Length Of our Life,
But You Can Control How You Want To Live It.

You Can’t Control The Weather,
But You Can Control Your Mood.

You Can't Change Your Look,
But You Can Smile.

You Can’t Control Others,
But You Can Control Yourself.

You Can't Foresee Tomorrow,
But You Can Utilize Today Wisely.

You Can't Win Everything,
But You Can Try Your Very Best To Achieve That.

Absolutely no one can overestimate the power of the mind and its role in our success! It is imperative to keep our minds right and on the right track if we are to achieve balanced success in our career, finances, health, emotions, relationships and spiritual lives.

The analogy I would like to use here is one of a radio station. For example, there may be a “Success” station. But the only way you can hear a radio station is to be tuned into it. Even a little off and you can’t get the full effect.

The same is true with our mind and success. If our minds and our thoughts get sidetracked, our success will get sidetracked. As our minds stay tuned to “success” our bodies will then carry out our success and we will begin to experience abundance!

So here are some ways to keep tuned into success!

Use your innate ability to decide and choose. One of the things that separate us from the animals is that we live not by instinct, but by choice. Constantly flexing that muscle of choice builds it up and keeps us on track for success. It is like working out. The more we do, the stronger we get. The more “fit” we get. Want to keep your mind tuned for success? Keep it healthy by making good choices and decisions on a regular basis. For example, do you have a bad habit? Then flex your mind muscle and choose to change—today. If you choose to stay the same way (and those are the only two alternatives) you will have just chosen to tune your mind to a different station than “success.”

Put good stuff into your brain. There are lots of things that want to work their way into our minds (and eventually work themselves out again in our actions). There will be lots that we just get from walking around all day. But what about what we put in on purpose? We can choose to put good stuff in on a regular basis. Do you take time each day to put good things into your mind, to tune into success? Here are two things to consider when you are choosing what to put into your mind: First, is it positive? Will it build you up or tear you down? Will it make you a better person, or lesser? Will you grow from it or not? Will it tune you to success or not? Secondly, Will it move you toward your goals in the areas of your life that you want to see success and abundance in?

Keep the junk out. Like I mentioned above, there will always be junk floating around, like a fellow employee who gripes all the time. But what surprises me is how many people who want success, actually willfully choose to put junk into their minds and then expect to be tuned into success. Here are some thoughts on this: First, evaluate everything that you put into your mind. Evaluate what you read, listen to and watch. We live in a fast-paced world and we have little time. Why then would we spend our precious time putting junk into our minds? Does what you read, listen to and watch move you toward your goals or away from them? It is a simple question, really. At least most of the time. And here is my soapbox. Eleven years ago, my wife suggested we give away our television. I was shocked to say the least, but decided to give it a try. Now I am the anti-TV fanatic in our house! I have more time than anyone I know and I don’t have to spend a lot of energy filtering my mind to tune it to success. Just a thought. Just a thought.

Eat right and exercise. That’s right. The way we eat and the amount of exercise we get goes a long way toward our mind’s ability to tune into success. Put the right foods into your body and the brain responds. Exercise on a regular basis and the body releases chemicals that literally ignite your brain for success!

Hope these thoughts help you to get going and keep your mind tuned into success. Put them into practice and soon you’ll be dialed into success and abundance.

--by Chris Widener

This is the last installment in a three-part series of articles.

Increasing Your Resiliency
Resilience is the ability to return to the original form after being bent, stretched or compressed. That’s the dictionary’s definition of resilience. It’s the ability to readily recover from illness, or depression, or adversity.

In our lives, resilience specifically means being able to withstand setbacks, broken hearts and broken dreams, financial crisis, loss of loved ones, loss of enterprise, and loss of health. How would you ever handle it if you lost everything you had today? What would your next step be? How long would you be depressed and upset and angry? What would it take for you to pull yourself up and start all over again? How resilient are you? Could you handle it? Could you learn from all of your disappointments and start all over again? What would it take?

Number one, it would take a lot of self-discipline. It would take a lot of positive self-talk to muster up the energy to begin again. It would take a lot of concentration to block out the noise and the clutter of all the negative voices trying to get through, as well as the negative voices of others around you. That’s a lot! It would take a lot of discipline to balance the fear and anxiety with the knowledge that, if you did it once, you can do it all over again.

It would also take a lot of self-reliance. Whether your losses had anything to do with you or not, your future success has everything to do with you. It would take a lot of self-reliance to avoid blame. What’s happened has happened. You would need to get on with your life and begin again.

It would take a lot of faith. It would take a lot of faith and trust in God to move ahead.

If you lost everything tomorrow and you were gathering all the courage to try again, it would take a lot of self-appreciation. You need to know in your heart and mind that you have the skills, the talent and the strength to do it one more time.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity, no matter how large or how small. You lose a client, one of your biggest ones. This client accounts for more than 25 percent of your gross revenue. Losing this client is going to hurt, financially and emotionally. Losing this client is going to negatively affect things for a while. The first thing you do is figure out why you lost this business. What role did you play? In what way are you responsible? You can’t just rant and rave, yelling and screaming at everyone in the office. Even if it was the wrongdoing of someone else, you can’t act like this, because it’s not professional. You’ll lose respect. And respect is hard to regain once you’ve lost it, whether it’s the respect of those you work with, your trusted colleagues or your valuable support people. You have to approach the situation rationally and figure out how to bounce back from your loss.

You have to evaluate the situation and then start a plan to recapture the lost business. Consider how you can increase your market share with other businesses. Maybe you can network with associates to bring in a similar client or even a better one! You can’t sit back and dwell on what’s happened. You’ve got to get back into the marketplace and recapture what’s been taken from you. Get back at it and replace what’s gone.

Perhaps your loss is a personal loss. Maybe you’ve recently been faced with the death of a loved one, a divorce or the loss of a very special friendship. If your loss is a deeply personal one, you must approach the situation a little differently. You must be patient with yourself and give yourself time to grieve, time to mourn, time to regroup.

The stages we go through in loss, be it the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship or the death of an enterprise, are beautifully defined in Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ book On Death and Dying. Whether the death is a literal one or a figurative one, the stages are the same: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And only by going through these stages and reaching acceptance can we rebound and begin again.

It’s said that children are more resilient than adults. Why? Maybe it’s because they don’t evaluate their current situation based on past experiences. They approach it in a fresh way, a new way. In their own minds, they deal with loss much better than adults.

Children who grow up in the unfortunate circumstances of poverty or abuse or neglect and later become successful are known as “dandelion children.” If they can succeed and prosper with terrible conditions, they can grow anywhere. It’s important to be more like a dandelion child. To be able to grow and prosper and succeed despite our current conditions. To be able to grow and prosper and succeed despite our losses. To be resilient.

Cultivating a resilient character turns what others would call failure into success. A resilient person won’t give up. A resilient person will, in spite of all obstacles and setbacks, keep doing it until.

In their book The Resilient Self, Steven and Sybil Wolin studied resilience and found seven key characteristics that compose it.

No. 1: Resilience requires insight. You need to develop the ability to ask tough questions of yourself and be honest with your answers. If you had something to do with your loss, be honest and responsible for it.

No. 2: Resilience is independent. As a resilient person, you can count on yourself to bounce back into life.

No. 3: Although resilience is independent, it’s also tied to others. The more people you are responsible to, the greater your motivation to begin again. The stronger the reason, the stronger the action.

No. 4: Resilience calls for initiative. You need to develop the ability to take charge of the situation, to take charge of the problem. You need to stand up and do whatever is necessary to get back on course.

No. 5: Resilience has an element of creativity. With resilience, you are able to look at a situation and creatively determine the best way out. You are enterprising in your approach toward starting over.

No. 6: A resilient person has humor. You may cry until you start laughing, but a sense of humor is so important when turning your life around. You’ve got to take your goals seriously, and you’ve got to take yourself seriously. But you’ve also got to be able to laugh at yourself and your situation at times. If somebody says, “You’ll look back on this and laugh someday.” Well, maybe today is the day to start.

No. 7: A resilient person has a strong sense of morality. Whatever you do to get back on your feet, whatever you do to bounce back into life, make sure it’s moral. Make sure that your upcoming success is at the service of others, not at the expense of others. Success, if it is yours to keep, must be at the service of others.

The more obstacles you face and overcome, the more times you falter and get back on track, and the more difficulties you struggle with and conquer, the more resiliency you will naturally develop. There is nothing that can hold you back if you are resilient.

--by Jim Rohn

“The ability to adapt is everything!”
--Denis Waitley

“You can’t think your way into acting positively, but you can act your way into thinking positively.”
--Nido Qubein

“Imitate until you emulate; match and surpass those who launched you. It’s the highest form of thankfulness.”
--Mark Victor Hansen

“Children have more need of models than of critics.”
--Carolyn Coats

This is the second installment in a 3-part series of articles.

Where the Miracle Begins
Sometimes, defeat is the best beginning. Why? Well for one thing, if you’re at the very bottom, there’s only one way to go—up. But more important, if you’re flat on your back, mentally and financially, you’ll usually become sufficiently disgusted to reach way deep down inside yourself and pull out miracles. Pull out talents and pull out abilities and pull out your desires and determination. When you’re flat broke or flat miserable, you’ll eventually become so disgusted that you’ll pull out the basic essentials required to make everything better.

It’s in the face of adversity that things begin to change, that you begin to change. With enough disgust, desire and determination to change your life, you’ll start saying, “I’ve had it. Enough of this. No more. Never again!”

Here’s where the miracle begins. “I’ve had it. Enough. No more. Never again.” These words and these thoughts really rattle the power of time and fate and circumstances. And these three things, time and fate and circumstances, all get together and say, “Okay. Okay. We can see that we have no power here; we’re facing some major resolve! This guy’s not going to give up. He’s had it. He’s done with all this nonsense. We’d better step aside and let this guy get by!” Inspiration through disgust.

A lot of people don’t change themselves. They wait for change. These poor unfortunate folks accept their defeats and wallow in their self-pity. Why? Because they refuse to take control of the situation. They refuse to take control of their life, their career, their health, their relationships, their finances. They refuse to take responsibility and get sufficiently disgusted to change it.

If you are disgusted, if you are in need of some change, if this book finds you in the middle of your own personal slump, then I have some words to offer. Your present failure is a temporary condition. It is only a temporary condition. You will rebound from failure, just as surely as you gravitated into failure.

One time, when I was in the midst of a bout of failure, somebody suggested that I should tell myself, “This too shall pass.” I firmly believe that you’re only given as much as you can handle, as much negativity, as much failure, as much disappointment. This too shall pass, if you grasp for a new beginning. You need to pull yourself up and move back into the world with a plan.

As foolish as it might sound, you should be thankful for your current limitations or failures. They are the building blocks from which to create greatness. You can go where you want to go. You can do what you want to do. You can become what you want to become. You can do it all, starting now, right where you are.

A father talks about his daughter. She’s gone through some pretty tough times, and as he tells it, she’s a pretty tough person. He has a unique way of describing his daughter’s situation, though. While most parents would be frantic, even for their kids who are grown and gone, this man just smiles and says that his daughter is like a frog in a jar of cream: She keeps kicking and kicking and kicking, and pretty soon the milk will turn into a lump of butter and she’ll be able to jump out. That’s an interesting illustration of tenacity, because that’s how it really works. You’ve got to keep trying and trying and trying. You’ve got to have enough resolve to do it until.

Some of the most inspiring success stories have started with failure. Longfellow started in failure. Michelangelo started in failure. Lincoln started in failure. Rod Serling wrote 40 stories before he had one that was accepted. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper that felt he had no talent. Richard Byrd crashed his plane on his first solo trip before he became one of the world’s greatest explorers. And the success stories continue.

Be grateful for your adversity. At the same time, make sure that it’s working for your future, not against you. Make your failures give birth to great opportunity, not prolonged agony. Make your disgust lead to inspiration, not depression. The world will willingly sit by and let you wallow in your sorrows… until you die broke and alone. And here’s what else the world will do. The world will step aside and let you by, once you decide that your present situation is only temporary. The doors will open once you decide to get back on your feet and make your mark.

You have to care. In your own enlightened self-interest, give a run at adventure. Keep your eyes firmly set on achievement. Don’t settle for mere existence and self-pity. Make a commitment to excellence. And remember, it is your challenge, your own personal challenge, to use all your gifts and skills and talents and knowledge to survive and succeed.

--by Jim Rohn

“The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is — a miracle and unrepeatable.”
--Margaret Storm Jameson

“The next time it begins to rain… lie down on your belly, nestle your chin into the grass, and get a frog’s-eye view of how raindrops fall…. The sight of hundreds of blades of grass bowing down and popping back up like piano keys strikes me as one of the merriest sights in the world.”
--Malcolm Margolin

“The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness.”
--Percival

“Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.”
--Bob Richards

This is the first in a 3-part series of articles.

Here is a familiar scenario for all of us; you may even be going through something like this right now: You have an exciting goal in mind, you’ve done your homework, you think you’re amply prepared… but things just don’t work out. You’ve probably had times when you thought you were doing what you were supposed to do, but you were misinformed. You thought you had it all laid out, but it just didn’t work. You burned the midnight oil day after day after day, but it didn’t seem to help. You couldn’t seem to change the end result.

These are the times when you have to be your own best cheerleader. And there are two ways to keep yourself encouraged.

Number one: Take responsibility for the missed opportunity or the misrepresentation. Learn from the fact that even though you made the best presentation possible, your client wanted it a different way. Be prepared for the letdowns that happen every so often. Know that this lost opportunity just set you up to take advantage of the next one. Realize that you can make the necessary alterations next time. Make the changes that will make the difference. Study your mistakes and learn from them. Instead of dwelling on the mistakes, simply acknowledge them and learn from them. Remind yourself that you’re smarter than your bank account leads you to believe.

Encouragement practice number two: Remind yourself that you’re bound to get better. Don’t get down on yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s the next opportunity that matters, not the last one. The last one matters only in that you must learn from your mistakes. But the next one gives you the opportunity to show that you have learned from your mistakes. You can do it better next time. You just have to practice. Keep trying until. Until what? Until you’ve got it down.

If you figured out what went wrong last time, then you know how to make it right next time. If you figured out what it was in your presentation that didn’t work, don’t say that next time. If you figured out that the reason you didn’t close the deal this time was because you didn’t have all the facts and figures in place, have all the facts and figures in place next time. Don’t beat yourself up for messing up. Pat yourself on the back for figuring it out.

You need to encourage yourself. You need to pump yourself up. You need to be your own cheerleader. Why? Because you can’t wait and hope that someone else will come along and cheer you up… make you feel better… tell you that you’ll do better next time. You have to rely on yourself. You have to have faith in yourself and your ability to figure out what works and what doesn’t. You have to have the inner belief that everything you’re doing, you’re doing for a positive outcome in the future. You have to encourage yourself with future successes.

When you miss an opportunity, are unprepared for an opportunity, or suffer a setback while realizing your goals, you need to encourage yourself by immediately getting back into line.

There’s an old cowboy saying, “Fall off a horse seven times and you’re a real cowboy.” If you fall off a horse, get right back on. If you fall off track, get right back on. If you fall away from your disciplines, get right back to them. If you fall out of habit, get back into the habit. Something goes wrong, do what you can to make it right.

If you fall off… get back on. If you fall off the horse, that is, the horse of habits or disciplines or progress, get back on. It may be hard. It may be a bit frightening. But get back on. Keep your resolve alive and active and well. Cheer yourself on to victory. You can do it.

--by Jim Rohn

“There is no security in life, only opportunity.”
--Denis Waitley

“Pa, he always said a man had to look spry for himself, because nobody else would do it for him; your opportunities didn’t come knocking around, you had to hunt them up and hog-tie them.”
--Louis L’Amour

“Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.”
--Stephen Covey

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
--Milton Berle

Some years ago I went into the studio and recorded a 56-minute video for teenagers called Three Keys to Greatness. Although my focus was for teenagers, the principles I shared certainly apply to adults as well.

Recently I was asked to list these three things using one to two sentences for each. Now for your benefit here they are again.

1) Setting Goals. I call it the view of the future. Most people, including kids, will pay the price if they can see the promise of the future. So we need to help our kids see a well-defined future, so they will be motivated to pay the price today to attain the rewards of tomorrow. Goals help them do this.

2) Personal Development. Simply making consistent investments in our self-education and knowledge banks pays major dividends throughout our lives. I suggest having a minimum amount of time set aside for reading books, listening to audiocassettes, attending seminars, keeping a journal and spending time with other successful people. Charlie “Tremendous” Jones says you will be in five years the sum total of the books you read and the people you are around.

3) Financial Planning. I call it the 70/30 plan. After receiving your paycheck or paying yourself, simply setting aside 10 percent for saving, 10 percent for investing and 10 percent for giving, and over time this will guarantee financial independence for a teenager.

If a young person, or for that matter an adult, focused on doing these three simple things over a long period of time I believe they will be assured success!

--by Jim Rohn

Have you ever walked into a room and couldn’t remember what you went there for? Have you ever grasped the hand of a potential client and then when the handshake broke, the name seemed to disappear from your memory? Or have you ever left a prospect and as you drove away remembered a key point that you should have shared with them?

Of course you have... we all have. However, I have some great news for you. Your memory is nowhere near as bad as you may think it is. Some time ago, I was a guest at a radio station in Waco. The disc jockey wrote a 50-digit number on a sheet of paper and told his listening audience and then played a three-minute song.

As the listeners enjoyed the song I memorized the 50-digit number. When the song was over we went back live on the air and I handed him the paper. I then proceeded to recite the number forward and then I said it backward. The disc jockey looked at me in utter disbelief, and stunned, he said, “Ron... you are incredible!” I looked him straight in the eye and replied, “You know... you are right!” I said, “Jay, the greatest computer ever created does not come from Dell or Gateway. The greatest computer ever created does not sit on the assembly line of a computer factory. Instead, you and I are the greatest computers ever created. And yes... you are right. I am incredible... but so are you.”

The human memory has the ability to hear a 100-digit number or more once and then repeat it forward and backward. It has the ability to memorize a Shakespearean play word for word or memorize the stats of every baseball player for the last 100 years. And the human memory has the capability to meet 100 people in 20 minutes and recall every single name!

Now, the question is, are you doing these things? If not, the reason is simply that you have not been trained to. Two thousand years ago a Greek named Simonedes developed a memory method called loci. With this method, Simonedes numbered locations in his home. He started in the doorway and then logically proceeded around his home. He reviewed these items so many times mentally that if you asked him what was number 25, he could instantly tell you what piece of furniture that number corresponded to.

These 25 objects were actually mental files for Simonedes. Then, if he had a list of items he wanted to recall, he would place them mentally on these objects in his home. Let’s say that you are a professional who wants to give a speech without notes. Simply turn the key points into pictures and then file them to your “house files.” When you are called upon to speak, simply mentally walk through the house and give your talk without notes.

For example, I gave a one-hour keynote in Atlanta at a homebuilder’s conference. I wrote my speech out the night before. The first thing I wanted to do was talk about the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. So I visualized the book on my front door and then mentally walked through my house and gave the one-hour talk without notes! That can work for you as well. Anything that you want to recall, simply turn it into a picture, place it on your house files and get ready to be amazed! YOU are the greatest computer ever created!

--by Ron White

“Discover twenty key people with whom you resonate favorably and can do vast amounts of business.”
--Mark Victor Hansen

“Networking is simply the cultivating of mutually beneficial, give and take, win-win relationships. It works best, however, when emphasizing the ‘give’ part.”
--Bob Burg

“It’s not who you know. It’s how well you maintain your Rolodex®.”
--Patricia Fripp

“Network continually—85 percent of all jobs are filled through contacts and personal references.”
--Brian Tracy

It has been estimated that we each have upwards of 50,000 thoughts per day. How many of yours are negative? Sometimes you have to do a mental spring-cleaning to get rid of those negative thoughts that have become ingrained attitudes. Stopping self-destructive thoughts is like stopping any other bad habit—it takes time and effort.

Among the most effective ways to do this are visualization and affirmations. Affirmations are positive statements about yourself that you repeat over and over in your head until they are programmed into your subconscious.

Visualization is mentally picturing yourself the way you want to be. You’ve heard the old saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Well, the reverse is also true: “I’ll see it when I believe it!” Affirmations and visualizations may not feel true at first—they may not even be true! However, they can become so.

Consider what happens when you tell yourself repeatedly, “I’m lousy at remembering names.” There will never be any improvement there. Therefore, if you catch yourself saying it, stop and immediately say, “I’m good at remembering names.”

Consider the effect of telling yourself, “I’m feeling pretty good today.” “I can lose 10 pounds.” Or, “I am good at getting people to see things my way.” Anything you say to yourself repeatedly will actually influence your reality.

Writing down your affirmations and putting them in some handy place—above your desk, on your bathroom mirror, on the dashboard of your car—will help keep them in mind as well as in sight. Use affirmations and visualizations to project what success will feel and look like. Imagine, in as much detail as you possibly can, how you feel as the boss singles you out for exceeding your quota, or how the audience hangs on your every word during your speech, or how your confident presence causes heads to turn everywhere you go.

To enhance your charisma and persuasion (while making others feel good about themselves), you can apply the very same techniques by turning them outward. Begin thinking positive affirmations about people you work and live with.

For example, “Bob seems much calmer and patient of late. I wonder what has changed in him.” During your next interaction with Bob, you will most likely remember your positive thought about him and start your conversation with, “Bob, I’ve noticed a change in you. You seem really kind and patient while counseling your new employees recently and I admire that. How did you acquire this wonderful characteristic?”

Bob would likely respond with a smile and a story about a book he found, a consultant he hired or a seminar he attended. Regardless of his reply, you have sincerely complimented another person, put out a positive thought and begun a new habit of approaching others using “appreciative inquiry”—finding the good in another person or situation first, instead of finding fault or flaws.
Criticizing is easy, and sometimes becomes habit, but retraining your mind to find the positive attributes in yourself and others will win you friends, increase your income and make you feel better about being a better you.

--by Tony Alessandra

Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book.

Some people claim that it is OK to read trashy novels because sometimes you can find something valuable in them. You can also find a crust of bread in a garbage can if you search long enough, but there is a better way.

Most homes valued at over $250,000 have a library. That should tell us something.

Everything you need for your better future and success has already been written. And guess what? It’s all available—all you have to do is go to the library. And there’s probably a library in every neighborhood.

Some people read so little that they have rickets of the mind.

I now have one of the better libraries. I admit that I haven’t read everything in my library, but I feel smarter just walking in it.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

The book you don’t read won’t help.

Books are easy to find and easy to buy. A paperback these days only costs $6 or $7. You can borrow that from your kids!

It isn’t what the book costs; it’s what it will cost if you don’t read it.

“All adverse and depressing influences can be overcome, not by fighting, but by rising above them.”
--Charles Caleb Colton

“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.”
--Glenn Clark

“If you want to get out of the pit, stop digging.”
--Ernesto Santos-DeJesus

“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
--Hermann Hesse

“The only way things are going to change for you is when you change.”

“Crud!”

His hand hit the dashboard as he said it. “I can’t stand this car!”

That about sums up Michael Jones’ life—crud. And… he can’t stand it.

Forty years old, a wife of fifteen years he doesn’t know how to connect with, and two kids he barely knows. Add to that a boring job that doesn’t challenge him and hardly pays the bills. In a word: crud.

Where had his life gone? Out of college, he and his wife, Amy, had been so filled with dreams. Their lives were ahead of them and nothing seemed impossible. They were full of potential and wanted to do so much. But now they were nowhere near where they had hoped to be.

Michael loved Amy, but it just wasn’t what it could be. They had grown apart through the years, and he had no idea how to fix it. The kids are great, but again, there was just no connection with them like he thought “normal” families should have.

And his job... definitely not what he wanted. A man his age making $40,000 a year with no upside? This was hardly what he had imagined for his life. It was what it was, and it seemed like he was stuck—stuck with a dead-end job and poor relationships. This wasn’t the success and happiness he and Amy had planned for.

But his life was about to change...

This car is the worst, he thought as it convulsed and finally died. Going about 30 miles an hour when it stopped running, he guided it as it coasted to a stop along the road.

He was on his way to a sales call and he had never taken this road before. It was a long, winding road that acted as a shortcut between two major roads. Not many houses on this road, he observed.

After the car rolled to a stop, Michael got out and walked around the car. It wasn’t as though he would be able to tell what was wrong from walking around; he knew zero about cars. He knew how to put gas in it, turn the key over, and that was about it. No smoke, he thought, and that had to be good.

He popped the hood and looked at the engine. All the wires seemed connected. All the caps were on. He didn’t have any idea what to do.

I should have taken shop class in high school, he thought.

Michael reached inside his jacket for his cell phone. He figured he would call a mechanic friend he knew and see if he could get some help. He flipped the phone open and saw the worst—no cell coverage there!

“Just my luck,” he said out loud. “They can put a man on the moon and clone a sheep, but they can’t put a cell site up where I need it.”

He looked around, trying to decide which way to start walking. Up ahead about 200 feet was a bend in the road, and he couldn’t see what was farther on, so he decided to go that way, just hoping there might be a house beyond the bend.

As he walked, he kicked the gravel along the road.

Frustrated, alone, and stuck. That’s how he felt right now. About this situation and life in general.
As he turned the corner, Michael came across something he had never seen in real life before. Sure, he had seen many in magazines and on TV, but never something like this with his own eyes.

Nice pad. Michael found himself standing in front of the most beautiful home he had ever seen. Home may not even be the right word for it. Right at the roadside was a huge gated entrance. The large brick and wrought-iron fence stretched at least 500 feet along the roadside. And the gate was at least ten feet high. Behind the gate was a house that had to be over 10,000 square feet. It was a white plantation style that had twelve two-story pillars across the front—which made sense since the sign at the side of the gate said, “Twelve Pillars.” It was magnificent. Michael stood in front of the gate for a few minutes, just looking in awe at the structure.

Finally, he snapped back to reality and realized that he had to get his car fixed. He didn’t see any other houses nearby, but he didn’t know how to get to the house in front of him either.

Just then, he saw an old man in white overalls emerge from what looked like a workshop just to the right of the driveway. The old man walked toward the gate.

When he got about twenty-five feet from the gate the old man spoke, “Can I help you, young man?”

--by Jim Rohn