My father’s last lesson

“I just want to get back into business.”
Wally Martini – 11/18/2010

My father’s last words fit him to a T. When I tell anyone that knew him those last words, they say, “Yep. That’s him!”

You see, my father was only an employee for a short time in his life. Outside of that, he created a number of businesses. Most of them did quite well, especially considering he almost always started them off with little or no resources.

He was born with the “gift of gab” as they say. A natural born salesman that always had a story and a smile. He mostly worked in sales, selling everything from time share to used cars, to store fixtures, and dozens of other things in between.

He was “Jolly Wally, the Round man with the Square Deal.”

But, something in his background, some events that happened to him, some story that he told himself about the world… led him to be self-destructive when things got going well.

And that’s why he had to keep starting businesses instead of taking one to fantastic heights.

So, why am I telling you this? It’s because of something that just dawned on me. I was talking with Ruth Rymal the other day and I was talking about how I’ve coached so many people out of the corporate slave pens and into their own business. But for some reason, until only recently, I have kept suckling at the corporate teat!

I now know that my Dad never wanted me to have a hard life like he had. He never wanted me to have to struggle with not being able to feed the kid (and in my case, three kids!) he wanted me to have a comfortable job where I would know that I had a steady paycheck.

I truly thank him for caring and I know he only wanted the best for me.

I’m sure that a stable job with benefits is fine for some folks, but it is NOT a path to success.

Millionaires don’t work for people, do they? They own their own businesses. And the best of them created their own business from nothing..

So, like my Dad, I just want to get into business. And hopefully, I’ve worked through enough of my mental junk that I won’t be so self-destructive and I’ll take this thing to the top. You know, my name in lights 15 feet tall and all.

The error in his thinking was that being in business for yourself is hard and comes with a lot of severe ups and downs, and they end badly. Sure it has ups and downs, but we can prepare for that and they don’t have to end badly if we can manage our own demons.

I say that running your own business is the path out of mediocrity and baseline living.

What’s your dream? What could you create? What’s stoppping you??