As you reach the mountain top take a breath and enjoy the view.  Don’t let the moment escape as you realize there are many more mountains to climb with higher peaks.

I know people like you and me right away tend to focus on the next climb and the next peak.  Enjoy this one.  Reaching this peak is its own reward and it deserves to be savored.

Soon enough you’ll be off conquering others.  Relish in your accomplishment today.  Look back and see how far you’ve come.

Jotted this down on opening day for our store in Harlem that had been closed for 6 months due to a fire.

Overjoyed and ecstatic

Tears welling up

With a laugh barreling up

Hugs, kisses and blessing shared all around

They came back in droves

Telling all who could hear

“Our store is back”

Our neighbors are here

Pride in themselves

Pride in us

What a privilege to be able to serve

Truly a manifestation of

Neighbors Serving Neighbors

 

And so it begins

A story with no ending

With the protagonist being you

Facing the world

Ready to conquer it

But there is an antagonist at play

Stage left he enters

Its the voice in your head

Bringing up a chorus

Of doubt and shame

Casting a shadow on the fame

But you know the lines

And read the script

The butterflies in your stomach know whats coming

With the tension building

The audience is screaming

For their hero to emerge

And chop the head off

Of the voice in his head

While your feeling boxed in

I’m being liberated

You can try and put me in it

But I’ll rip through the bottom

Or tear through the top

It’s where I belong

Now matter how strong

These constraints seem to be

In them I can see

With a sixth sense

I’m like Spiderman

Playing games on these walls

Yup I see the writing

But it doesn’t pertain to me

I’m in another dimension

Embracing the tension

The tighter it gets

The more freedom, no question

So put me in the box

Try and check me off

Begin the countdown

Because I’m about to blastoff

Believe in You

Never before in the history of mankind has so much knowledge been readily available to all.  Once upon a time quality information was only for the elite or well connected.  Today everyone virtually anywhere can know and learn wherever, whenever, and however they want.

We are drinking from the firehose when it comes to information.

The difficult thing to do is sift through the noise to find true nuggets of knowledge.  But its not enough to know you must be able to connect the dots creating relevancy for you, your team and community.

Try

Should

Could

Would

Kind of

I wish

These words and more like them have a “quitting” action built into them.  Saying them gives you an automatic out, an escape route for not reaching your goals.  “Well at least I tried” is not the same as “I’m going to.”

Get your going by taking deliberate action.  When you change your vocabulary, you will change your life.

A simple way you can start and spread this kind of momentum based thinking is by changing a bit a phrase you are probably saying everyday.  Instead of saying “Have a great day” – which leaves it up to chance.  “Make it a great day” and give yourself the power to create the best day possible.

These corporate shops

Play no games in this war

To acquire more 

Customers tagged as just COGS

Cost of Goods Sold

They are out to blast them

Bombard and target them

Just to make that extra dollar

Using stealth techniques

Triage into the wallet

Of all who come through their doors

No holding back

Its the shareholders they’ve got

But across the way

There’s the independent

Who’s not playing in the same box

Or by the same rules

While those others are out using guerrilla tactics

Trying to breakthrough to you

The independent is directly building a relationship with you

Supporting you

Having your full interest at heart

Wearing it on his sleeves

Rolling them up

Breaking bread with you

And offering you a cup

See you and him are just the same

Both striving to make it in this infinite game

Calling each other by name

Neighbors serving Neighbors

Is the mantra they speak

Unworried about the Wall Street traitors

Because you and I rather trade

One to one

When a kid throws a tantrum you know it’s all about getting attention.  The kid believes, mostly from past experiences that stomping his feet, bringing up tears, and yelling (especially in a crowded restaurant or shop) will get mom’s attention.  Better yet it will more than likely get him what he wants.

Most of the time it works – until it doesn’t.

Mom and dad  are no longer having it.  No matter how loud little Timmy gets something is obviously different.  No one is rushing over whispering promises and pleasantries.  Even when Timmy begins rolling on the floor mom and dad pay no mind.  Garnering embarrassed stares from the other parents.

By doing “nothing” they changed the game.  No longer will shrieks, pulling at the hair, tears, or stomping of hands and feet be used as lever like some Pavlovian switch to get mom to give into a little brats whims.

The real change didn’t come from all the kicking and screaming.  It came from mom and dad’s defiance to give into the kid in a crowded restaurant.  Having the courage to stand up to the little tyke will save the world of this type of terror when little Timmy is 50 years old.

Ever notice that the people telling you, “You can’t do that,” are the same ones not achieving at anything. Just because they don’t, can’t, and won’t does that mean you should not.

See their fear of being ridiculed or failing prevents them from taking action. But you are better.  You know that with each failure you’re learning a lesson on how to make it work. Thomas Edison famously said before creating the light bulb, “I haven’t failed.  I just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Next time someone says to you, “You can’t do that!”   Show them how wrong they are.  Let them see what you’re made of and give them something to aspire to.