Posts Tagged ‘Napoleon Hill’
Hitch Your Wagon
Napoleon Hill tells the story of riding home with his grandfather on a horse drawn wagon.
As they ambled towards home, they came across a well dressed stranger with a superior attitude who decided without invitation to jump onto the wagon as they passed with a “give us a ride, hayseed!” remark as he climbed aboard.
Napoleon’s grandfather said nothing and soon the silent trio had left many miles of dusty road behind them.
When they reached home and turned in toward the barn, the man leapt off and said “Hey, how far it is to Big Stone Gap from here?”
“We-ell”, said his grandfather, “if you start walking back the way we came, it is about twenty miles. If you keep going the way we were going, I’d say it’s about twenty five thousand miles.”
When my mother (Mary) died, she left me with three things:
1. Her passport showing her physical passage through the world
2. Her well read copy of “Think and grow rich”
3. Her last words; “Don’t die with your dreams inside you Keith!”
Mary touched many people through her life, my friends always felt part of our family, she shared our meagre possessions and food with those she could, and she made sure we knew we were loved and made to feel special.
The early part of my adult life was filled with friends, cars, music, motorbikes, girls, and far too much testosterone. I worked hard in my computer career and played hard in the evenings and in the weekends.
There was no doubt that my life was picking up speed and that my assets were becoming more tangible (I think the current term for this is “bling”) and my attitude more “all knowing”.
It is easy to climb aboard the “most popular wagon” with all of our friends and become part of the majority of people who have absolutely no control over where the wagon will go or at what speed.
Mary’s death and the subsequent reading of Napoleon Hill’s classic book caused me to begin my journey into the study of positive psychology and to re think some of my goals and dreams.
One of my most alarming discoveries was to discover that approximately ten percent of the population own and control the wealth of the world we live in.
Even with my rudimentary grip of mathematics I could see that “my well meaning advisors” were likely to fall into the ninety percent category and that my upbringing had saturated me with this style of average-Joe thinking.
There have been moments where the comfort and familiarity of the old wagon seemed tempting, and I have even sat on the worn wooden seat and rested for a while. But after a few miles of mindless bouncing along the dusty road of nowhere, surrounded by comments of despair and helplessness, I have gladly slid off again and re focused on my purpose and passion.
You have the freedom to “jump off” whenever you choose, to select your own destination, to walk the road less traveled and to use your time on this world to make a real difference in the lives of others, and in yourself.
It is just a decision away!
