BIG ideas

many times I get on a roll and the ideas just start flowing....sometimes they should really stay in the back of the closet but every once in a while one is so great that I just have to let it out-to see where it can go...see how people react-is it positive or not? is their response appropriate?? sometimes the idea is so far out there that it takes a while to catch on-I'm OK with that.

my first week in DECA ( a high school business class/club) I stated in my class "goals report" that my goal was not to make it to the National competition level-but to win when I got there-that seemed to be a ludicrous statement considering I had never taken a marketing class and there were others who were in their 3rd or 4th year and either gone and were going to make it again (thereby not leaving a position for this "newbie") or had never made it themselves. Well I made it to Nationals with relative ease-I didn't put much effort-as it just seemed so easy as it was...LOL what an arrogant thought! I didn't win the championship-a lesson in talent requiring effort to be REALLY good!

Anyway....my first college class was an English class where again we had to write our "college/life" goals. I was 26 at the time, with two small children and no prior college ( I think I graduated HS with like a 2.7 GPA!). I stated that my goal was to have my MBA, with Honors throughout, by the time I was 30. The professor tried explaining to me that these were supposed to be REALISTIC goals. I graduated Magna Cum Laude ( Dean's List, President's List...yadda yadda) with my Bachelor's degree three years later and a year after that earned my MBA with Honors. I thought about inviting him to my graduation ceremonies :)

All this is not to brag about what I did-after all, it wasn't really that hard. The most difficult part was getting people to believe that I could do it. The odds were definitely not in my favor...the ideas seemed to be preposterous to others when I said them aloud. But they were my ideas and I knew what the result was going to be....

After awhile I stopped trying to convince people of what could be done- I just went out and did it. Why is it that so many times in life and business we keep stopping and we look around for approval of ourselves and our ideas? Getting input and feedback is a VERY WISE thing to do-but sometimes you just have to step out there.....and when you step out there you have to be willing to lose some sleep, go hungry, cry, scream, sacrifice fun, work harder than you thought possible....and then gt up the next day and be willing to do it all over again....until you get there!

(BTW-once you get there-stop for a minute and enjoy the feeling-then start the process all over again!)