If you don’t write your own story, who will?
Chris Widener of the “Made for Success series” recommended that Dino Rossi write a book to tell his story. He did and he titled it, Lessons in Leadership: Business, Politics and Life.
If you have had a busy life, or you have lived a long productive life, why not pass your experience down to the next generation. So how do you get started? Take your life and break it down into chunks and chapters, then fill in the blanks. The end goal is to leave something of value, for someone else. After reading your story, what has the reader learned?
Life is like a mosaic work of art. Its little pieces, snap shots of life and events, that when viewed from a distance create a picture with meaning and substance. And the farther you move away the more you appreciate it all.
Life is not all success stories, however it leaves clues, if you are paying attention, as to what to do, or not do next time. Some of the best motivational speakers would wrap key life principles, into their stories.
Jim Rohn is my all-time best story teller. He once said that he wished he had written more books. I think his real gift to the world was the spoken word. He worked on his craft and he was a “master wordsmith”. You can still order his material from the Success Store.
Dino worked his way through college because his folks couldn’t afford to send him. I joined the military to go to school under the GI Bill. Dino said something that rang true for me. Don’t let your present situation dictate your future. When Dino was young, people looked at his poor situation and said, you will never get into college but he did!
When he was working on the state budget they said, you can’t balance the budget without raising taxes, but he did! They said that he would never be elected as Governor but he was! None of it was easy, but he did it with faith and the power of focus.
When he graduated from college, he sold everything he had, so he could travel and see some of the world. He traveled as a tourist to Southeast Asia. Some of my high school class-mates traveled to Southeast Asia also, but not as tourist, as soldiers fighting the war in Vietnam. I was shipped off to support the cold war in Europe.
Dino traveled overseas for nine months and when he got home his brother gave him an old car, and said if you can get it to work, it’s yours. He got it to work, and then he got to work. He worked at night, as a janitor and in the day time he sold commercial real estate. Funny how opportunity comes to those that aren’t afraid to work.
When Dino made his first few commercial real estate sales, the other guys that worked in the office, called it luck. When he kept getting lucky, they stopped talking, because they were not there. In a straight commission business, it’s do, or die.
Dino did what he had to do, while the other guys “waited to take orders”, and they got none, so they quit. After 18 months Dino had made enough money to put down a deposit on his own commercial property; an apartment building.
Learn from every experience. He learned to negotiate million-dollar commercial real estate deals between the lawyers; the lawyers for the “buyers” and the lawyers for the “sellers”. He took those same negotiation skills with him when he got into the political arena. When you have a “real objective”, you cross party lines to get things done.
When he first got started in the commercial real estate business a manager gave him some wise advice that stuck with him. Don’t count your money too fast. Make sure both parties get what they want first, then figure out how much you made. Reminds me of something Zig Ziglar would always say, “Help enough people get what they want and you can have whatever you want”.
The Empower Network was designed to empower you so you can go out and empower others. If you plug into the training and you attend the events and you don’t quit you will get to where you want to go. Just remember that people have different learning curves. And people bring different skill sets to the table.
Your competition is not somebody else, but yourself, that’s why personal development is so important. If you don’t read or study you won’t grow. Click and get started on your journey now. This has been straight talk, beast mode. What will your masterpiece look like?
H.G.M.
Internet comments
Deirdre Powell
Great post Earl. I really enjoyed reading about Dino Rossi. I didn’t know anything about him. Determination and a never give up attitude will go a long way to get you where you want to be. Thanks for sharing such a great story.
Sue Price
Thanks for sharing this Earl. I have not heard of Dino Rossi like Deirdre. I enjoyed reading about him. You commented a couple of weeks ago about writing your book. You have me thinking. As you said, our lives are a series of stories and not all are, success stories. For me I believe my unsuccessful ones are the best teachers. Thanks for a great post, as always Earl.
Earl Hackett
Thanks for your comments. The world is full of great stories. We mostly only hear of those to did something really bad, or something really sad. One must search for the positive stuff.
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