Its' great to be back after a two week vacation. Ginny had a great story today on the morning call about an eagle who knew he was born to fly but had given up. With a lot of encouragement from a brother eagle, Quest ( the eagle in question) stopped feeling sorry for himself, and made the decision to do what he was created to do, fly.
We have been advised that Part I of the Boot Camp is over. Let us bring forward the lessons we have learned and leave the rest of it back in 2008. We are moving forward with Part II in 2009--the GROWTH part. That's right, no matter what happened tin 2008, we are now ready to reap the harvest of the seeds we have sown. well, hopefully we are. In my own case I have sown a lot of seeds but I am not very happy about the way I have cared for those seeds. During the vacation I had time to reflect on how I was doing in the Boot Camp, what am I doing right, what am I doing wrong, how can I improve? Unfortunately, when Boot Camp is in full swing there isn't much time for reflection--something I have done as a business man all my life. That is going to change in 2009. In business I never ever gave up a customer in the hand for one who might be in the bush but that is exactly what I have been doing. I have had my priorities in the wrong place. I have neglected following up with people who had already indicated an interest MPM to go chasing after new people who had not indicated any interest at all. Don't get me wrong, new people are the life blood of any organization but in the general scheme of things they do not come before the people you already have.
I would like to end with a little story of my own. Today we got news that Carl Pollad died today. I knew him as "Uncle Carl" when I worked for him at Midwest Wine Company (1978-1982). Most of you will know him as the owner of the Minnesota Twins. Some of you may even know that he made Billions of dollars and gave millions to charity. What you probably don't know is that Uncle Carl started out just like you and me. He was an Iowa farm boy. He grew up, went off to World War II (yes, until today he was a survivor of WWII), served three years in Europe and earned a purple heart. Uncle Carl did not come back from the war and say "woe is me, I am a veteran, I was shot, the world must owe me a living." No he didn't say those things. Like our friend quest the eagle above, he made the decision to do the things he was created to do. He knew he was created to build a great financial empire and help many, many people. Just how does an Iowa farm boy freshly back from being shot up in the war do that? He started right where he was at. He took what little money he had and invested it in a single Pepsi Cola distributorship in some one horse town in Iowa. He built it up and bought another Pepsi Cola distributorship and another and then a bank or two. The rest is history.
The point is Uncle Carl decided to do what he was created to do and he started building right where he was. We can do the same thing, we can choose to do what we were created to do, we have already been given the tools in MPM, we just need to start building right where we are at.
Uncle Carl is gone, it is up to us to do the building now. 2009 is our year to show the world that we have made the decision to do what we were created for.
Happy New year!
Tom
3 comments:
Fabulous Blog entry, Tom! Though you may not have cared for the seeds you sowed very well, they are still in the ground - still waiting for water and a little sunshine. :)
Ginny
Wow, Tom. What a wonderful message you've written. You've acknowledged an area you'd like to improve in (one that I have been guilty of myself more than once, and is also on my list to improve), and, you've touched my heart with your story of Uncle Carl. I'm sorry for your loss.
Just as your seeds are in the ground, the seed of Uncle Carl's story is in your heart, and it will fuel your team's growth.
Good luck.
What a great story Tom. It should inspire us all.
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