Be the Hammer

I recently saw an auto commercial for an American car telling you not to be the nail, but to be the hammer. In this case, the "nail" is everyone who doesn't drive this car, while the "hammer" is reserved for people who buy the car and drive it.

It's a nice car, and a great idea, but why settle for a vehicle that needs to be advertised on late night television. You never see a commercial for a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Masseratti on television, but almost everyone knows these cars. Why, because they are the cars of our dreams. The cars we could never afford. The cars that no typical person could ever own.

But the question that's never answered is "Why can't a typical person own a Ferrari/Lamborghini/Masseratti?"

The reason is simple, and it has nothing to do whatsoever with the car, or the company.

It has to do with the person, their dreams, their desire, and what they are willing to do to reach their goals! There's only one thing keeping most of us from driving these cars. Ourselves!

And why do we keep ourselves from driving these cars? Fear!

• The fear of setting a lofty goal and not achieving it.
• The fear of people looking at us and saying "don't" or "stop".
• The fear we internalize when someone tells us "don't set your hopes too high."
• The fear that if we don't achieve our goal, that people will consider us a failure.

The most brilliant and successful people in history chose a different path that can be summed up in a simple statement:

Don't be afraid of failure. Embrace it and learn from it. Then pick yourself up off the floor and try again!

Thomas Edison, arguably one of the most important men of his time, encountered failure every step of the way.

• He failed over 1600 times trying to create the electric light bulb before he succeeded.
• He built machines for the iron mining industry that were a dismal failure, then reworked them for the cement industry and made them into a success.
• His laboratory/factory in Menlo Park NJ burned to the ground setting him back to square one on everything. But he rebuilt and continued.

The key about Edison was that he was never afraid of failure. He embraced it, learned from it, and picked himself up off the floor and tried again.

Edison wasn't the nail!

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