by Jim Rohn | Apr 9, 2018
Wouldn’t it be
wonderful to be motivated to succeed by such a lofty goal as benevolence?
In the early years of
my struggle to succeed, my motivation was a lot more down-to-earth. My reason
for succeeding was more basic. In fact, it fell into the category of what I
like to call “nitty-gritty reasons.” A nitty-gritty reason is the kind that
anyone can have—and it can cause our lives to change. Let
me tell you what happened to me.
Shortly before I met
my mentor Earl Shoaff, I was lounging at home one day when I heard a knock at
the door. It was a timid, hesitant knock. When I opened the door, I looked down
to see a pair of big brown eyes staring up at me. There stood a girl of about
10. She told me, with all the courage and determination her little heart could
muster, that she was selling Girl Scout cookies. It was a masterful
presentation—several flavors, a special deal and only $2 per box. How could
anyone refuse? With a big smile, she politely asked me to buy.
I wanted to—except for
one thing: I didn’t have $2. Here I was, a father, a college
graduate with a job—and yet I didn’t have $2 to my name.
But I couldn’t tell
this to the little girl with the big brown eyes. So I lied to her. I said,
“Thanks, but I’ve already bought Girl Scout cookies this year. And I’ve still
got plenty stacked in the house.”
It was the only thing
I could think of to get me off the hook. And it did. The little girl said,
“That’s OK, sir. Thank you very much.” And with that she turned around and went
on her way.
I stared after her for
what seemed like a very long time. Finally, I closed the door behind me and
cried out, “I don’t want to live like this anymore! I’ve had it with being
broke and I’ve had it with lying. I’ll never be embarrassed again by not having any money in
my pocket.” That day I promised myself to earn enough to always have several
hundred dollars in my pocket at all times.
This is what I mean by
a nitty-gritty reason. It may not win me any prize for greatness, but it was
enough to have a permanent effect on my life.
My Girl Scout cookie
story does have a happy ending. Several years later, as I was walking out of
the bank, I saw two little girls selling candy for a girls’ organization. One
of them approached me, saying, “Mister, would you like to buy some candy?”
“I probably would,” I
said playfully. “What kind of candy do you have?”
“It’s Almond Roca.”
“Almond Roca, that’s
my favorite! How much is it?”
“It’s only $2.”
$2, it couldn’t be! I was excited. “How many boxes of candy
have you got?”
“I’ve got five.”
Looking at her friend,
I said, “And how many boxes do you have left?”
“I’ve got four.”
“OK, I’ll take them
all.”
At this, both girls’
mouths fell open as they exclaimed in unison, “Really?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve
got some friends that I’ll pass some around to.”
Excitedly, they
scurried to stack all the boxes together. I reached into my pocket and gave them
$18. As I was about to leave, the boxes tucked under my arm, one of the girls
looked up and said, “Mister, you’re really something!” How about that! Can you
imagine spending only $18 and having someone look you in the face and say,
“You’re really something!”?
Now you know why I
always carry a few hundred dollars on me. I’m not about to miss chances like
that ever again.
And to think it all
resulted from my own embarrassment, that when properly channeled, acted
as a powerful motivator to
help me achieve.
How about you? What
nitty-gritty reasons do you have waiting to challenge and provoke you to change
for the better? Look for them, they’re there.
Sometimes it can be as
simple as a brown-eyed girl selling Girl Scout cookies.
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