Last weekend I hung out with two dead guys. In fact as I consider a lot of my ’solitude’ life – I tend to spend a large amount of my time within the company of the deceased. Now you may say, ‘How can you do that? How can you have a conversation with the dead?’
Well it all started years ago, when things were a lot tougher in my life than they are now. I would take myself to the local university in the town that I lived and I would search for jewels. Now where do you find jewels in a library you may ask? Good question. Jewels to me, in the context of the library, are books that add value to my life. And that is where I met a whole group of dead guys. In fact, I had to search into the depths of the basement area of the university’s library before I dug up some incredible treasure that is dear to my heart even until this day.
So there I was in the deepest, darkest parts of the library, all alone, poring over multiple volumes of some of the original productions of a man called Ralph Waldo Emerson. Here was a man, even though I didn’t fully understand his language, that seemed to have a kindred spirit. Reading his material was like an entwining of our hearts and minds. I felt his words to the very depths of my being and from time to time I actually understood them. It was like I was drinking liquid gold. Now the books were so fragile that the pages were beginning to perish, and so ever so carefully I underlined key words and phrases with a lead pencil so that I could later type up those notes into a complete volume for further study.
Now you need to understand that I wasn’t a fan of everything he wrote, but what I liked, I really, really liked with an incredible passion. So from that day on I have made it my practice to hang around dead guys just like Emerson.
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In order for you to take possession there needs to be something within your life that becomes your obsession.
Half-hearted people will achieve half-baked results. Full-hearted individuals will reap full-blooded achievements.
No-one has ever achieved anything of lasting significance by dipping their little toe into the water. Those who have ever done anything that has impacted their generation and beyond has at some point plunged headlong into the depths of opportunity.
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Vulnerability is an amazing place to be. Is it a nice place? Not at all. But it is a choice place.
It is a place where you can choose to hide under a rock, or a place where you can stand on the mountain top and declare, ‘I may be vulnerable. I may be on my last legs. Opportunity may seem to be avoiding me at every turn, but I choose to stand up in my nakedness, stripped of all pride and potential, in the eyes of others, and yet I hold on to a number of assets that to me are worth millions: character, integrity, talents, gifts, ideas, and of course my dream.’
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If a thing is very common and easy to get, we say it is ‘a dime a dozen.’ And that is exactly what talent is.
Let me explain.
In a recent seminar I wrote at the bottom of my white board, in small writing, ‘talent’. And next to it I wrote the word ‘low’. I then proceeded to write in large letters at the top of the board the word ‘high’. And then beside that word started to write what I felt were much more important qualities in a life. Words such as: positive in speech and action, a ‘can do’ spirit, patient, attends to detail, teachable, people skills, servant, excellence, never having own agenda, willing to work for a common goal, non-offensive, co-operative, understanding, willing to learn, does what is asked to do, keeps their word, character, honesty and integrity.
I then went on to explain for the next hour why, as an employer, I placed all those qualities far above talent. And particularly as I franchise my business – I am not going to be looking so much for talent first and foremost, but will in fact be looking for far higher qualities in my applicants.
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I have often heard the statement that it takes twenty years to become an overnight success. Having lived for more than twenty years myself, and as I look at the lives of those who are successful around about me, I have come to believe this statement more and more and more.
Most successful men don’t hit their straps until their fifties. I know for certain that that was the case for the famous French artist Monet. I know it from the example of my friends who own one of the fastest growing coffee franchises on the planet. And there are many other examples that I could cite.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t experience success at an earlier age, but it does seem to me, that those whom I know, who have developed long lasting success; that is both sustained and exponential, have spent many years being developed in the darkroom of their lives. They have spent that time being prepared for future outstanding success, and throughout that preparation they have been expanded greatly on the inside. Because of that process they can handle the expansion of their lives that is now openly visible for all to see.
This is why I spent many years reading and studying. I knew for a fact that if I was going to do anything of great significance in this life, I was going to have to prepare myself. I recall spending many hours locked away in the basement of the Newcastle University, many years ago, reading the original works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The books were so old that the pages were beginning to crumble in my hands. But all I knew was this – my mind was being expanded by the power of the thoughts that Emerson had written onto the page, and even though I didn’t understand much of what he wrote in the English language of the 19th century, I knew for one thing that I was eating liquid gold that was expanding me on the inside.
And that is why I mostly read books written by some of the greatest philosophers who have ever lived. I also love to read the biographies of great men and women – where I can get inside their minds and study them.
Just the other day I was fortunate enough to purchase the complete works of Abraham Lincoln – The War Years by Carl Sandburg and The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln – 13 volumes in total. I recently acquired the complete works of Winston Churchill’s The Second World War. My most treasured volume though is still the Bible.
By reading these classics I continue to associate with great men and women, while at the same time expanding my mind, and in doing so expanding my capacity. I know that I can now step forward into the future with confidence that I will be able to fulfill the dreams that have been in my heart for decades.
You too can do the same.
