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Archive for the ‘Overcome Failure’ Category

Something tells me George Clooney meant this comment to be a bit tounge-in-cheek. You decide.

Take a star from halfway around the world and post their comments on a website written in another language….HA!

Hello, blog readers! Today, I’m trying something new for your enjoyment. A podcast!

Last week, radio veteran Dave Block and I sat down for a candid interview about the newly published book, Powerful People Overcome Powerful Failures. Click here and check it out! It’s my first attempt at a podcast, so be sure to let me know what you think.

Copies of the book may be ordered now directly from our publisher by clicking here. I’m also working on a special ordering option for anyone who might like an autographed copy for your own personal collection or as a personalized gift for someone in your life who could use a little boost. That option will be added soon, here, along with other recommended books and audio learning resources!

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of “reality television”, but I do have one weak spot. For some strange reason, each Monday night I am glued to my TV for Hell’s Kitchen. Chef Gordon Ramsay lets his ego fly in what amounts to a boot camp for culinary hopefuls. He has no choice but to be tough, given that the grand prize is a stint as the Executive Chef for a multi-million dollar restaurant at Las Vegas’ Green Valley Ranch. (I still don’t know how Aaron, the “asian-cowboy” ever made it onto the show, but I digress.)

Over the past few of weeks, however, a story has risen which truly caught my attention. It is the story of Paul Potts, a cell phone salesman from south Wales. While I’d caught bits and pieces of Mr. Potts story across the internet, it was an interview on NPR’s Day to Day I had downloaded as a podcast that captured my heart. Truly a story resonating with reason for why no one should ever give up on their dreams.

The story is told here, in this clip from Britain’s Got Talent, a show pop-icon Simon Cowell is involved with across the pond. Be sure to watch his face when Mr. Potts steps to the stage with his awkwardly pudgy body, chipped front tooth, and nervous demeanor. Then watch the reaction, not only from the judges, but the audience as Potts belts out a sound no one on earth would have expected from this fellow. Opera. It was absolutely stunning. In an instant, this cell phone salesman won the hearts of underdogs around the world, catapulting himself onto the world stage. (See his final, winning performance of Nessun Dorma here.)

This week I was reminded that God works “behind the scenes” to make so many things happen in our lives. Call it luck. Call it divine intervention. Call it talent. Simply stated, it is success! Never quit! Ever!

Paul Potts, you have a fan in me!

This story was forwarded to me this week from an old friend. It resonated so much with the message shared in my upcoming book, Powerful People Overcome Powerful Failures, it was only fitting that the story be shared here. What a story of resilience!

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time How do you do it?”

He replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or … you can choose to be in a bad mood I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.”

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the communications tower industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins…wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,” he replied. “Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked

He continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’. I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said John. “She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity!’”

Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude… I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

You have two choices now:

01. Keep this story to yourself

02. Forward this blog entry to the people you care about.

Be bold. Be intentional. Be successful!

After first launching www.overcomepowerfulfailures.com as a website, I decided it was best served to host this site as a blog. And why not? So, here goes:

The book is coming! For those of you who have been asking (and that’s quite a number of you), we are proceeding forward with the book, only a few months behind schedule. I’ve begun to empathize with expectant mothers and how they must feel when people continually ask “Haven’t you had that kid, yet?” Publishing a book isn’t much different. To all of the mom’s I’ve ever asked the preceeding question, I take it back and apologize profusely.

The first serious round of edits are complete, and I understand the next step is to forward our manuscript to the publisher for their editors to begin their review. It shouldn’t be long, now!

I’m exploring the possibility of a book tour later this year. In consideration are any reasonably sized cities in which I have a guest bed or sofa on which to sleep. Of course, I haven’t asked yet, but I also plan to do a book signing at The Bookseller in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Though it changed ownership hands a few years ago, it was the site of my very first job during my freshman year of high school. Who knew someday I’d actually write a book?