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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"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself!"

Franklin Delano Roosevelt couldn't have been more correct when he uttered that famous phrase.

Time and time again I see people who don't do what they should. I myself am part of that group.

Recently I noticed I wasn't doing what I needed to do and took some time to analyze why. It didn't take me long to realize I didn't do what I needed to do because I was afraid.

I'm not talking about the rational fear that keeps me from jumping into the alligator pit at the zoo or jumping out of a plane without a parachute. I'm talking about the fear that keeps you from picking up the telephone and calling your mother at 3:00am because you might wake her up.

This fear is the single most destructive thing to achieving a goal, no matter how small.

While the rational fear makes you turn from the attacking lion and run, this fear keeps you rooted to the spot, unable to pick up a telephone and call someone.

Why???

As it turns out, over 99% of the time, this fear is a fear of what other people think about you and how that perception may change if you act.

You start to act and your mind, the unbelievably complex and incredible thing it is, narrows in on one single subject. You start thinking to yourself "Right now we're best friends, but what will she think when ..." and you stop acting. You never had a problem talking to her before, but now, you're paralyzed.

This is the same problem that keeps people from working in sales or recruiting. The concept of the cold call where you're offering a person what could be the best thing in the world that could ever happen to them is a virtual impossibility to most people in the world due to an irrational fear.

Let's go a bit deeper...

Assume, for the moment that you have an opportunity to make some money. Not a lot of money, say $50US. But the catch is that you need to work with 4 other people for an hour and split the money. Most of us would jump at the chance, call our 4 closest friends, earn the money and go party after.

What if it was $100,000 and to earn it, you needed to get your 4 friends to leave their jobs and go to work for a new company. Although most of us would want to do it, we wouldn't. What would your friends think of you for trying to get them to switch jobs? It doesn't matter that they all make $50,000US/yr and the new job would pay them $100,000US/yr. It doesn't matter that this would keep 3 of them from filing for bankruptcy. It doesn't matter that the new income would reduce the stress in their family enough to keep them from filing for divorce. The only thing your mind concentrates on is "What will they think of me?" And the only answers you come up with are typically wrong.

So what should you do...

Take a chance!!! Make the call!!! Ask your friends!!!! Keep taking chances!!!!

And above all...

DON'T LET FEAR OF WHAT OTHERS THINK HOLD YOU BACK!!!!!!!!!

Typical Is Overrated!!!!!!!

An individual is a smart person who is willing to do what it takes to get something done.

Until they are corrupted by the masses and made into a typical, everyday, average person!

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WHY?????

The simple answer is because people need to "keep up with the Jones's."

But if the Jones's just get up, go to work, come home from work, eat dinner and sit around at night watching TV, then on Saturday spend the day watching the "Big Game" or mowing their lawn, why would anyone want to just "keep up" with them.

People should take up the new mantra "Pass By the Jones's!!!!"

I learned a long time ago from some brilliant people just what it takes to "Pass By the Jones's" and hopefully, my readers may be able to learn from me, what I've learned from them.

This wisdom came to me from N and LB (whom I'll refer to as NLB) and Matt and Mark (the 2 MP's), but NLB and the 2-MPs learned it from even more brilliant individuals who, like me, want people to go beyond typical. We all want people to leave ordinary behind and become extraordinary!

How?????

You'll have to come back for that...