Doing What You Were Created To Do

When I was out running this past weekend, I remembered this story that my friend Ryan told me when we were training to run a marathon. I have no idea if it is true or not or even if it was based on some legend, but it still inspires me, so I thought I'd share it. I can't remember every detail as I was half delirious when I heard it, so I'm filling in the holes in my memory with what sounds good.

There was a young Lakota Sioux who loved to go out and run through the hills. Some times he would run for hours at a time. He loved to run because it was what he felt he was created to do.

As he ran mile upon mile his body would grow tired and he began to wonder how he would ever make it back home, but he kept running anyway. On one particular run he was growing tired and thirsty as the hot sun beat down on the rocky ground making the temperatures rise. Nearly ready to quit, he heard the screech of the red tailed hawk echo off the hills around him and he squinted into the sun to see it's silhouette soaring far above with it's wings spread.

He thought how nice it would be to have wings like the hawk so he could fly home and began wondering how much easier his life would be if he could posses the abilities that the great hawk had. If his eyes were strong enough to see a field mouse from hundreds of feet in the air life would be easier he thought. If I could soar on the wind instead of run step after step stumbling over rocks on the ground, life would be easier. But then, with the wisdom of the tribal elders, the young boy realized that he was not created to be a hawk and soar on the wind, or see from such a great distance. He was created to run on the ground.

His body grew more and more tired as he contemplated this and he continued his journey. After many miles, his body near exhaustion, he spotted the hawk again, circling above, and called out to the creature and asked for its help to give him strength to keep running.

His body ready to quit, he threw his head back, held his arms out and closed his eyes, drawing on the power of the mighty hawk above. For miles he ran like this, feeling the energy grow within him and his strength somehow returned. He was able to finish his journey.

He realized that while he would never fly like the hawk, he could draw on the inspiration of the hawk to do what he was created to do, running as one with his surroundings.

My friend told me this story as we were both feeling exhausted on one of our 14 or 16 mile runs. So, we decided to stretch out our arms and throw our heads back looking skyward. We never closed our eyes for fear we'd get hit by a car or trip on something, but regardless it somehow gave us strength to continue and finish our run.

To this day, and on this day I'm not nearly as fit as I was then, when I feel like stopping when I'm running, I still, for a few seconds stretch my arms out and look up for strength. And to this day I still feel stronger, realizing if I draw on the inspiration around me I'll never quit.

So, with whatever you find yourself struggling, find what you can draw inspiration out of and let it empower you to continue your journey. I'm always amazed at what you can accomplish after you think you can't continue any more.

The Cost of Doing Business

I got this email from my good friend who was the best man in my wedding. We were exchanging email back and forth and reminiscing about the good old days.

[you are] Giving me flashbacks with all that talk about AIT, Duane and Jennifer - man, she was cute, little anal retentive though (like Kari wasn't.) Weren't we trying to blow up fish in Duane's pond that trip too? Any idea of what he and Mike doing now? Soooooo many good times! Camping at Arrowhead, going to Iowa games with you and your folks, Model UN trips which were basically about checking out brainiac girls, torturing Fiscus and Martin constantly, joining the cross-country team with you (sorry - at least I joined the golf team though - and sucked!) That party at your place before I left for Basic is still the best sending-off I've ever had, and definitely helped keep me going during that 10 weeks of hell. I remember getting back and laughing because I had no hair, and you had more-or-less a curly-haired afro. All things considered though, we really were pretty good kids back then, eh? We didn't really drink, never touched a drug, never got suspended from school (more than a few detentions though!). Hope our kids are as good as we were when they hit their teens.

Reading this, and then re-reading it about 3 times made me think about how much different my life was back then and how much different I imagined my life to be now. At age 16 I was going to never grow up. I was always going to blow with the wind and be carefree until the day I died and wear my curly haired afro til the day I died. Somewhere along the way, I came to the conclusion that I had to grow up if I wanted certain things in life.

So, along the way, I sold off portions of carefree and cut my hair (or maybe it just fell out) for more responsibility and something I wanted more than being able to spend a whole day doing nothing. I'm not sad about it. I knew what I was doing and would never want to go back with my receipt and try to get a refund. It was a necessary expense to get what I wanted more than to be carefree. It was the cost of doing business.

Now here's the business analogy. When you started your business, did you say to yourself, "I'm always going to provide the best quality at the best prices possible." Did you make promises that you would always serve the customer no matter what? Did you swear on a stack of Bibles that you would never cut corners no matter what the savings and you were going to donate a percentage of your business to a charity - you probably even had the charity picked out before your first sale.

Most entrepreneurs make these kind of 'curly haired afro' promises to themselves. But, the difficulty is that as you get into your business, things like cash flow and that pesky Accounts Payable keep trying to take a priority over your promises.

What makes this hard is when we hear the successful business owner talk about how they made a commitment to customer service, or some other promise you tried making but haven't been able to keep, and that's why they are so successful. Just remember, it's easy to talk a big talk when you're making money hand over fist. But, when you're in the trenches trying to make payroll by Friday so your employees come back to work on Monday and you can keep your clients, it is much harder said than done.

So, while lofty ideals are good to start with, don't be discouraged if you find yourself in the predicament of cutting a corner or two to get the job done. Remember the old saying, "If you shoot for moon and miss you'll be among the stars." Which isn't such a bad thing either, it is just part of the cost of doing business.

Entrepreneurial Success

I just came across this article in the Spring issue of the JCI Leader magazine. Evidently it was originally published in Entrepreneur magazine, but I mention JCI only to plug them as a neat organization with some great resources for the young entrepreneur.

The article, 7 Secrets to Success by Brian Tracy is one of those articles that when you read it you are continually saying to yourself, "Yeah I knew that." But, later you are asking yourself "Why don't I practice that?"

Brian's 7 steps are:

1. Clarity: You must be absolutely clear on who you are and what you want.
2. Competence: You must resolve to join the top 10 percent in your field.
3. Constraints: Your ability to identify the most important factor that determines the speed at which you achieve your business goals is essential to your success.
4. Creativity: The essence of successful business is innovation.
5. Concentration: Your ability to concentrate single-mindedly on the most important thing and stay at it until it is complete is an essential prerequisite for success.
6. Courage: It takes tremendous courage to take the entrepreneurial risks to become wealthy.
7. Continuous Action: The entrepreneur is always trying new things and, if they don't work, trying something else.

Some excellent points to immediately implement in life regardless whether success is in business or personal life, it all applies. Plus they all start with the letter "C". Doesn't that just scream "I should be extra motivated and I have to do this now?"