Monday, April 13, 2009

Courage

Where does this precious quality come from? Is it nurture or nature? Is it a learned behavior acquired by watching the behaviors of others? I don't know, don't want to know, and further don't really care. I know it when I see it in another and have been attracted to such folks making lasting friendships with them. These are the kinds of people you want not only in your business but in your community and life as well. The courage to tell it like it is, the courage to say that's not a business model I'm willing to associate myself with-no matter how much money is involved.

The courage to really know oneself, the courage to inspire others, the courage to open the conversation so the prison walls of loneliness fade into the far off distance of another lifetime. The courage to give freely of oneself without freely giving oneself away. The courage to pursue one's dreams while understanding that it is only by helping others to a solution to their problems is all of this possible.

So, one might ask how does all of this relate to network marketing? It all sounds aloof and surreal-life is simple not like that. This is where personal commitment and courage meet the status quo. Dreams are not only discouraged but actively attacked from so many fronts in society that very few of make it to a successful realization. As a child my dream was real simple-I just wanted it to stop. All the fighting, the cruel words, all the things that transpired that no one ever talked about.

My dream was not possible then because we didn't have any solutions. We didn't have anything to compare it against, and we didn't have the courage to ask for help. Boy did I learn that lesson well, I look back and can honestly say that asking for help almost killed me-literally. But when I acquired the courage to say, "I don't know what I'm doing, can you please help me?" My life has never been the same since. People have not only shared their dreams with me, but have inspired me to use my creative imagination to create my own-what a gift!

In my mastermind community the amount of courage among the individuals is without equal in any one place, at any one time. There are many things I want to lose and replace with more of this precious quality. What do I want to lose? I want to lose the death grip on the self-sufficiency that served me so well as a child, a survival tool that has no capacity to allow dreams. I want to lose this idea that only a select certain few are capable of success, anyone with the commitment to personal growth can succeed. I want to lose many misconceptions about work, if I come up with results that are above and beyond I want to be paid or pay accordingly.

I know that my company shares my philosophy in many ways-especially the results. I'm inspired by the courage of the people on my team as well as everyone who is in my mastermind group. Courage is what sets one apart from a life of the ordinary to a life capable of the extraordinary. My dream as a youth has been fulfilled because I could finally say with an honest humility, "I don't know what I'm doing, can you please help me?" The courage it took to say those words again and again over the years has led me to a life that people like myself could only dream about, and today it's my reality! I pray that I continue to have the courage to be a light for others to make it from bridge to shore.

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