25 years ago, after I graduated from college, I worked for an oil company for a few months and then was laid off from my job as an engineering technologist. So, I started my own graphic design company. My business cards said freelance graphic designer, and photographer, and sign maker, and T-shirt maker... and aerobics instructor. A friend who owned a printing company came to me with a new business idea to make recall cards for Canadian dentists so they wouldn't have to import them from the US. Right... Imagine designing a card that would make people WANT to go to the dentist. "We're keeping a nice, comfy chair ready just for you... and your root canal!"
So of course I said yes. We agreed to set up a partnership. I would create the designs and he would print them. So, we each worked away for a couple of weeks producing our first set of cards. And then, we watched them gather dust as they sat on a shelf in the back of the warehouse for the next YEAR as each of us very quickly forgot about this great idea and got busy with our other businesses. This was something that I agreed was a good idea, and with all great intentions of following through, I just sort of gave up on it all. I think that the many challenges that lay ahead of us were truly formidable, and faced with all of those unknowns; we instead chose to just do the safe, easy thing, and quit.
BUT… my subconscious mind didn't let me forget about my earlier commitment, and was busy nagging me about how we had taken the easy road. Finally (mostly I think just to appease my subconscious nagging), I decided that I would take a Saturday and do whatever I needed to do to complete the NEXT step in what we had set out to do and put together a brochure advertising our cards and mail it out to some dentists. If there was a response, then that might provide us with the kick in the butt we needed to continue with our idea. So I did. I went in on a Saturday, spent the entire day producing the best brochure I could, I used my B&W photo copier to make 500 brochures, hand-folded each of them, stuffed them into 500 envelopes, licked 500 stamps- yes, I LICKED 500 stamps.
On Monday morning I dropped the brochures off at the post office on my way to work. I had at least completed the next step of what we had set out to do, and if nothing else, in my mind, I had avoided the temptation to quit. One week later I was stunned when I opened my mailbox, it was jammed full of orders! Well, 13 years later, that tiny little card company became the largest supplier of recall cards to the Canadian dental market and the second largest in the US. And in fact, we sold that little card company to our largest American competitor who felt threatened by our rapid growth for an amount which allowed my wife and me to retire. Thomas Edison said "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up". Never, ever quit because you'll never know what could have been.
Motivational Speaker at human-power.com. Greg is a professional
Motivational Speaker who will energize and motivate your audience.
