In our little community I had this friend named Dennis. He was a couple years older than me.
Dennis had a problem... he had a newspaper route. His family was moving, and he had to find someone to take the route from him.
I had tagged along with Dennis on the paper route a couple times. Dennis was a generous kid...
He always had a "jingle in his pockets" and when I accompanied him delivering papers he always bought me a candy bar and a soda.
I liked that.
I wanted to be Dennis.
"Can I take Dennis's paper route?" I asked my parents.
I was 10. They were worried. The Regional Manager of the Newspaper was unsure.
No question, I could remember where the customers were and deliver their newspapers. BUT... what about the money side of things?
When collecting for a week's worth of newspapers, could I make change without making mistakes?
I proved I could. I delivered "The Indianapolis News" (which no longer exists) for four years.
And always had a "jingle" in my pockets.
I even saved enough along the way to buy my first motor scooter when I was 12. (Law Enforcement in our area ignored the 12 year old delivering newspapers on a motor vehicle!)
My parents encouraged me.
The Regional Manager encouraged me.
And that set me on the "Positive Mental Attitude" (PMA) course.
Thomas Edison failed a LOT.
And in failure he learned what DID NOT work. Using that knowledge, he kept moving, trying, failing, until he began to see things that worked better and better until he succeeded.
Looking at the world today I am dismayed. I think we are more and more fearful of failure.
"That won't work."
"I can't do that."
If you tell yourself you can't, you won't even start, and therefore you're right- YOU CAN'T!
It's the Elon Musk's of today that are succeeding and getting rich.
Try. Fail. Try again.
If you fail, learn from they experience. Learning is a good thing. Like Elon, try again and again until you succeed.
Your PMA will rub off on others, making their world AND YOURS a better place.
Be Elon Musk.
And surround yourself by people with "PMA".
You'll be richer... maybe even beyond your wildest dreams.
07 May 2023
I HATE "Can't".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I do remember a meeting where one of my colleagues did his usual piss and moan that some plan was doomed to failure.
The manager said, "George instead of telling us 10 reasons why this is going to fail, why not give me one reason it will succeed?"
That stuck with me for the rest of my life.
The late sales trainer Jackie Cooper repeatably stressed, "Winners do what losers won't". That has motivated me for the past 30+ years.
Excellent points!!! And yes, YOU are the only one responsible for your success or failure.
Ow we have politicians, schools, and parents telling a generation they “can’t” because, whatever, from skin color, to sexual urges, to climate.
We are raising a generation primed to fail.
neat story and good wisdom. Wish more young shared it but they are getting a different message from somewhere.
Post a Comment