Thursday, July 12, 2012
It Really Works
I’m young. That means that my theories on life have a smaller amount of “proof in the pudding” than my elders. But today, July 12, 2012, my theory on long term goal setting unfolded before my eyes all at once… and took my breath away.
Here’s how it happened:
On July 12, 2010 I was writing all of my daily and weekly goals down in my moleskin book and someone asked me what my ultimate goal was. I had goals as far as five years out but not an ultimate goal. So I started thinking. After about an hour and two espressos, I came up with what my ultimate goal should be. I then asked myself “why?” From there, I began working in reverse; I set a 10 year goal, a new five year goal, and then divided my five year goal by six just to give me some time to get rolling. All the while asking “why?”
I decided that if I were to accomplish this goal I would need to write it down every day and remind myself “Why?” at least once a week. After I figured out “Why?” when, and how. I wrote the whole thing down in my book, which said: I am going to make one million dollars by July 12, 2012. I will accomplish this through the Tessemaes brand I have built and I will not stop until I get it. I then spelled out eight reasons why.
Two months ago I was doing the math on my goal and realized that I was short. If we continued on the path that we were on in 2012 I would not get my goal…and then we released our two oil free dressings and hot sauce…AND ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. We ended up receiving four huge orders in one month, got into a new region, got approved for another and…two months went by like a blink of an eye.
This morning I woke up not realizing that today was the 12th of July 2012.
After going to my coffee shop to plan my day it hit me. Today was the day. Had I accomplished my goal? After looking at the books and doing the simple math, I sat back in my chair in shock.
I begin to immediately think of the past two years and realized that everything that I had believed was and is true. There is an introduction to a book that I read anytime people doubt me doing the impossible which reads “Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.”
The moment I wrote that goal down in my book and believed it to be true, the Universe started working in my favor even though I could not understand how.
So I am here two years later on July 12, 2012 telling you one thing: If you believe, in the silence of your heart that you are worthy of accomplishing your goals and dreams, commit and do it. Don’t listen to anyone. The Universe will work with you to make it happen.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Dreams into reality--for real
The other evening I had a dream about a friend and what his destiny was. For confidentiality purposes I will not disclose what the dream was or who my friend is, but I woke up on Monday morning and sent my usual "The Boooyaaanessss" to my friends outlining that destiny only knocks a couple times and the smart man recognizes it. The friend that I had the dream about responded to my email stating that he "really like that one". I then called him to tell him about my dream. As I was explaining my dream he was silent. I then said "so this is what you need to do man, I just have a feeling". He then asked if I had spoken to his wife and I responded "No, why?" It turned out that my dream was true and he was in the middle of trying to make the decision on whether or not to make the business decision that I had the dream about!!! I started screaming in the phone. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! ITS A SIGN! ITS AN OMEN! YOU HAVE TO DO THIS!" I then asked if he had read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. He said no but ordered it on the spot.
This book opened my eyes like I was opening them for the first time. Here is the introduction:
There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We group up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But its still there.
If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepare to accompany us on that journey.
Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.
I ask myself: are defeats necessary?
Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
So why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only got to suffer more than other people?
Because, once we have overcome defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live the enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.
Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives
Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And its true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want feel that we don’t deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal--when it was only a step away.
This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.
This book opened my eyes like I was opening them for the first time. Here is the introduction:
There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We group up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But its still there.
If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepare to accompany us on that journey.
Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.
I ask myself: are defeats necessary?
Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
So why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only got to suffer more than other people?
Because, once we have overcome defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live the enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.
Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives
Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And its true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want feel that we don’t deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal--when it was only a step away.
This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Necessity is the mother of all "change"
“Necessity is the mother of all invention”—Plato
I will expand on that quote and replace invention with “change”. The quote is absolutely true regarding invention but Necessity also breeds and produces all change, invention or not. Now you are probably thinking to yourself, “No shit”. But up until two weeks ago that quote didn’t hit home…until Necessity came banging on my door.
We were all set to have production run as usual. Everything had been ordered, our facility had been reserved, the employees were ready, and then an email popped in. “Just confirming the following PO’s”. PO(s) as in plural? We looked through our previous emails and found, to our shock, that one of the PO’s had been unaccounted for. A PO for 13,000 bottles had slipped through the cracks.
What do you do in that situation? Email back and say “sorry, we fucked up and we cant deliver.” Umm, FUCK NO. You put on your hard hat, pack a ham sandwich, and prepare to GET IT ON.
The “change” came when we all sat down to plan this triple order that we didn’t know existed. Up until that point, only one person had a pulse on our production and the rest of us relied on him for all information, results, and issues. We were now forced to own it; ALL OF US. We ALL had to figure out how to make it happen. And in the process, we all had to make MAJOR change happen. And we did. We figured out that we needed a larger space. We figured out we needed more people. We figured out we needed better equipment. And most importantly, we REALIZED that one person cannot own a department without any intervention from others. Everyone has to have SOME pulse on what’s going on with everyone else. You cant put people on an island and expect it to run perfectly. You have to take time and “get in its guts”. Only then, can you move forward. Only then can you create change. And when that change finally happens (from necessity) it will accelerate your personal and professional evolution TEN FOLD.
That experience changed my life and it made me realize that when one door closes another one opens (and the second door is always better).
I will expand on that quote and replace invention with “change”. The quote is absolutely true regarding invention but Necessity also breeds and produces all change, invention or not. Now you are probably thinking to yourself, “No shit”. But up until two weeks ago that quote didn’t hit home…until Necessity came banging on my door.
We were all set to have production run as usual. Everything had been ordered, our facility had been reserved, the employees were ready, and then an email popped in. “Just confirming the following PO’s”. PO(s) as in plural? We looked through our previous emails and found, to our shock, that one of the PO’s had been unaccounted for. A PO for 13,000 bottles had slipped through the cracks.
What do you do in that situation? Email back and say “sorry, we fucked up and we cant deliver.” Umm, FUCK NO. You put on your hard hat, pack a ham sandwich, and prepare to GET IT ON.
The “change” came when we all sat down to plan this triple order that we didn’t know existed. Up until that point, only one person had a pulse on our production and the rest of us relied on him for all information, results, and issues. We were now forced to own it; ALL OF US. We ALL had to figure out how to make it happen. And in the process, we all had to make MAJOR change happen. And we did. We figured out that we needed a larger space. We figured out we needed more people. We figured out we needed better equipment. And most importantly, we REALIZED that one person cannot own a department without any intervention from others. Everyone has to have SOME pulse on what’s going on with everyone else. You cant put people on an island and expect it to run perfectly. You have to take time and “get in its guts”. Only then, can you move forward. Only then can you create change. And when that change finally happens (from necessity) it will accelerate your personal and professional evolution TEN FOLD.
That experience changed my life and it made me realize that when one door closes another one opens (and the second door is always better).
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