When Opportunity Knocks

I’m currently reading an entertaining book about the famous automobile entrepreneur, Henry Ford (“The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century”).  One story struck me about the importance of seizing opportunity when it presents itself.

In the early 1900′s, Ford went to work on a racing car – the Ford 999, to run a series of races essentially for publicity for his commercial automobile efforts.  Although Ford had driven in a number of races himself with other vehicles, he was fearful of his creation and decided that he needed a more experienced (and some would say “crazy”) person to handle the 999:

Up to this point, Ford had driven his own race cars, but the new models were so powerful that, like Dr.Frankenstein, he grew leery of his own creation.  Bluntly put, Ford was scared to drive his own car.  After several test runs around Detroit tracks, he had sensibly concluded that he had neither the nerve nor the skill to operate them at optimal level … so he turned elsewhere, and (his business partner) Cooper’s friend entered the picture …”

 

Enter Barney Oldfield, an Evel Knievel-type daredevil who had previously only raced bicycles.  He saw an opportunity in the new sport of automobile racing, for steady work and the chance to make a lot of money.  I love what he said when he received the invitation from Ford and Cooper to drive their car – “When opportunity knocked in that letter from Cooper, I jerked the door open so quickly that she almost fell on her nose in the middle of the room”.

In “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill stresses the importance of jumping at opportunities by writing; “… life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite of you is time.  If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time.  You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision!”.

I’m not suggesting that you go out and start racing dangerous machines for a living.  But opportunities come in many different forms, and there are likely things that you’ve held off doing in your life.  When debating whether to jump at those opportunities, inject a little bit of Barney Oldfield in your life and go for it!

A Must Read For Entrepreneurs

If there’s one book that all entrepreneurs should read, it’s “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  Written in 1937, near the time of the Great Depression, it’s a handbook on personal development that has been a major influence on a number of successful people. It highlights the 13 success principles according to Hill: desire, faith, auto-suggestion, specialized knowledge, imagination, organized planning, decision, persistence, the master mind, transmutation, the subconscious mind, the brain and the sixth sense.

It says something about the material when a book is just as popular now as it was over 70 years ago.  If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend picking it up.  For a more in-depth experience, get the boxed set which includes the book, a Think and Grow Rich workbook and a success journal.  I recently got this expanded set and it’s great at keeping you on track for your goals.

As an aside, here’s one of my favourite parts of Think and Grow Rich – a poem on the power of positive thinking;

If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you like to win, but you think you can’t,

It is almost certain you won’t.

 

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.

For out of the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow’s will -

It’s all in the state of mind.

 

If you think you are outclassed, you are.

You’ve got to think high to rise.

You’ve got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

 

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster man

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can.

 

Facing Your Fears

I’m currently re-reading a great book, “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” by Napoleon Hill and W.Clement Stone.  I came across a story about former US District Court judge Irving Ben Cooper, and a certain challenge that he faced as a child (and how he got tough and fought his fears).  I wanted to share it here;

 Victory is built in to every living person.  Take the case of Irving Ben Cooper, who was one of America’s most respected judges.  But this was very far from the way young Ben Cooper thought of himself as a young boy.

Ben grew up in a near-slum neighbourhood in St.Joseph, Missouri.  His father was an immigrant tailor who earned little money.  Many days there simply wasn’t enough to eat.  To heat their small home, Ben used to take a coal scuttle, and walk down to the railroad tracks that ran nearby.  There he would pick up pieces of coal … There was one gang of boys in particular who found great sport in ambushing Ben on his way home from the tracks and beating him up.  They would scatter his coal all over the street and send him home with tears streaming from his eyes.  Thus it was that Ben lived in a more or less permament state of fear and self-despising.

Something happened, as it always must when we break the pattern of defeat.  The victory within us does not assert itself until we are ready.  Ben was inspired to positive action because he read a book.  It was “Robert Coverdale’s Struggle” by Horatio Alger.

In it Ben read the adventures of a youngster like himself who was faced with great odds, but overcome those odds with the courage and moral strength which Ben wished to possess … the boy read every one of the Horatio Alger books he could borrow.  As he read, he lived the part of the hero.  All winter he sat in the cold kitchen reading stories of courage and success, unconsciously absorbing a Positive Mental Attitude.

Some months after he read his first Horatio Alger book, Ben Cooper was again making the trip down to the railroad tracks.  Off in the distance he saw three figures dart behind a buiilding.  His first thought was to turn and run.  Then he remembered the courage that he had admired in his book heroes, and instead of turning, his hand gripped the coal scuffle more tightly and he marched straight ahead, as if he were one of the Alger heroes.

It was a brutal fight.  The three boys jumped Ben all at the same time.  His bucket dropped, and he started flailing his arms with a determination that caught the bullies by surprise.  Ben’s right hand smashed into the lips and nose of one of the boys – his left hand into his stomach.  To Ben’s surprise, the boy stopped fighting and turned and ran.  Meanwhile the other two boys were hitting and kicking him.  Ben managed to push one boy away and knock the other down.  He jumped on the second boy with his knees, while he plowed punch after punch into his stomach and jaw – as if he were mad.  Now there was just one boy left.  This was the leader.  He had jumped on top of Ben, Ben managed to pull him aside and got on his feet.  For a second the two boys stood and looked each other squarely in the eyes.

And then, bit by bit, the leader stepped backwards.  He, too, ran away. Perhaps it was the righteous indignation, but Ben picked up a chunk of coal and threw it at the retreater.

It wasn’t until then that Ben realized that his nose was bleeding and that he had black and blue marks on his body from the punches and kicks that he received.  It was worth it!  It was a great day in Ben’s life.  In that moment he overcame fear.

Ben Cooper wasn’t much stronger than he had been a year earlier.  His attackers were no less tough.  The difference came in Ben’s own mental attitude.  He had faced danger in spite of fear.  He decided that he was no longer going to be pushed around by bullies.  From now on, he himself was going to change the world.  And, of course, this is exactly what he did.

We all see various types of bullies, and challenges, every day.  We can choose to run and hide, or to fight back.  If a small boy can take on three “stronger” challengers at the same time and win, what can you do?