Follow Your Passion
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Chapter 9 |
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Chapter 10 |
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Taking The Plunge!
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I felt I was prepared to leave the security and warmth of the regular income. Andersons now seemed like a beach to me, full of warm soft supporting sand with a secure monthly paycheck!
Actually it was this surfing analogy that helped
me leave the beach and paddle out into the water to join them.
The waves are not so scary if you see them as
waves of opportunity. You just have to surf a few into shore. Take a few ideas and try them
out - and get out before they crash. You don’t have to sink yourself into debt with an office, or run out and buy equipment. EXAMPLES: People think they have to own the mountain, but
you can start your own ski school specializing in some new trick
skis. You don’t have to be a famous fashion designer
in the first year, you just have to start selling your designer
scrunchies at the local fair! You don’t have to build you own gym – you just
have to offer a pilates class at the fitness center. Waves are The Buzz! There was a new young energy in the after-dinner
speaking circuit and I caught the wave just right! I was out there in the ocean, on a
board, with my bagpipes ready, my shtick practiced, free from debt and ready
to surf! I might have ended up a professional bagpiper that happened to do a few funny toasts. I nearly ended up playing the banjo in an Irish band, and for many years I survived as a Scottish story-teller! You just have to have lots of different interests. Watch for Other Surfers!
Many surfers can be on the same wave, but this is actually a reason why
many don’t ever take the plunge – ‘I am too late - look at how many
other people are already doing it!’ However, that only shows that there is a good wave out there! Get on it now, but beware of sharks that try to sell you into waves that have broken a long time ago! 'That fad will have passed by the time I take
a course in it!’ you whine. Yes, but then you will be in the water on a
board ready to catch the next big thing that comes along! I meet so many brilliant people who turn their back on the surf with excuses like that. They bury their head in the sand and try to tell you that the beach is not that bad after all!
©2000-2005 JB |
Some are happy to stay there on the beach working for someone else, but I
was forever looking out to sea, watching all those entrepreneurs who had
unshackled themselves from the workplace and were free-lancing! Those self-made millionaires seemed to be doing
just precisely what they wanted to do. The Richard
Bransons of this world made it look so easy – as if they were out there
surfing the waves! 
The large companies are
already out there producing for the mass market. They are the tidel waves, the
scary water that would swallow you up if you stood in their way. 
We are
certainly not talking about starting a new craze here - that would be like trying to make the wave yourself. You could not
make a single ripple on that huge ocean! Go with the wave - ride the enthusiasm that is already out
there instead of trying to create your own. Service the
buzz that already exists. 
Want to find the next
fad? Study the other
surfers. The waves are very long and there is room for many
entrepreneurs to
take advantage of the same opportunity. Go out to the edge where
the waves are breaking! 
You can just imagine the
laughter as I stepped out of
a secure job with a bright future at Arthur Andersen. I literally walked out of the
office and up Arthur's Seat (a hill in the center of Edinburgh) took off my
tie and hung it on a rock and swore that I would never wear one again! It
was as if I also stripped off my pin striped suit and walked into the surf! My
CPA friends all tried to talk me out of it but I knew the truth about
the sand!