Growing up I always believed that my family was wealthy. Though I didn’t want much as a child, it always seemed like I got most of the things I wanted. When I was a junior in high school I was accepted to early admissions at Rutgers University. I was excited to inform my parents, who were very happy for me. Then my mother looked at me and asked how I was planning to pay for it. She informed me that our family did not have any money to contribute to my college education. This came as quite a shock.
The next day I went to my high school counselor and asked for some ideas about how to pay for college. She handed me a thick book listing scholarships. I spent hours scouring the book, looking for some kind of scholarship that I might be eligible for. I was a good student and a good athlete, but not outstanding at anything. Then I came across a listing for a golf caddie scholarship — an ex-caddie had left an endowment for caddies to go to college. I looked up the codes and found that Rutgers and the golf course where I had caddied during previous summers, were eligible for this scholarship. I went to the golf professional at the local course, who told me to write a letter of recommendation, and he would sign it. A few months later I received a letter of congratulations saying that I was to be given a caddie scholarship and a work study program that would pay for my tuition and housing in full.
Several years ago I read an Inc. magazine study about factors separating businesses that succeed from those that fail. The primary predictor that a business will survive is that the owner or management team has no choice but to make the business work. This generally means the person or people who own the business are dependent on it for their income. It means that if the business were to fail, the owners would have substantial personal financial liability. It also means that there is a commitment beyond money, having to do with values or identity. When management believes there is no choice but to make the business work, the chance of success is greatly increased.
Though I have experienced my share of difficulties, challenges, and pain during these past many years in business, I have also experienced a tremendous amount of satisfaction and growth. I believe firmly and completely in the services that my company offers and the potential to change lives and open hearts. I’m convinced that it is possible to develop a financially successful, spiritually based company. I love the complexity, simplicity, and mystery of how business works. I love the challenges of combining flexibility, creativity, and discipline. I am willing to tenaciously battle and overcome whatever obstacles I may face. If change is needed, so be it. If the company needs to be reinvented, okay, change and transformation seem to come with the territory. If I need to stretch myself beyond my perceived patterns and limitations (gulp), then okay.
I recently turned on the radio and heard the conductor for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra being interviewed. He talked about his family being killed in Nazi Germany and being raised by an aunt in Europe. When he was nine years old he didn’t speak for an entire year. At the end of the year he heard someone playing the piano, the first time he had ever heard the instrument. He immediately knew that he wanted to play the piano and began taking lessons.
The interviewer asked him if he had a natural talent as a child for the piano, since he is now regarded as one of the world’s greatest pianists. He was silent for several moments in response to this question. He then said that the question didn’t really register with him. It was irrelevant whether or not he had talent for the piano. When he heard the piano, he was possessed — he had to play.
Many years ago, when I was running my publishing company, Brush Dance, I conveyed to my purchasing manager the phrase that described how I wanted her to perform in her role: “compassionate bulldog.” When getting pricing from vendors and when sourcing for new products, it is important to be tenacious, to not take no for an answer, to always be digging deeper for more information, more options, and better pricing. When you run into obstacles, you need to keep going, to find new solutions, to find better prices and better ways of doing things. At the same time, it is important to take good care of people in the process. In fact, getting answers and getting good prices depends on forming good relationships with people, not by putting them off or being confrontational.
It is sometimes said that success is one-tenth inspiration and nine-tenths perspiration. The Zen teacher Dogen, in talking about the quest for awakening, says that it is necessary to fail ninety-nine times before we can have one glimpse of our true nature.
Questions
When have you overcome immense obstacles?
What did you learn from these experiences?
When have you given up?
When have you acted with compassion in difficult situations, and when have you not?