Christopher V. Flett

When I was growing up, my parents instilled a belief that I could choose to make anything happen that I put my mind to.  When I wanted things to happen, I would put my mind to them, think about all the ways that I could make them happen, consider which one was both: 1)easy and 2)quickest to do. I would make the attempt, quite often fail, take the new information I had learned, reapply to the plan, and go again. I have failed at least 10x more then I have succeeded which allows me to continue to move to the top in business (and hopefully in life). Now you might be asking yourself why the hell I’m walking you down memory lane? Well, it is because anyone can make things happen if they choose to.

I see people wining and moaning in the media about being displaced, fired, or laid off. I get that this sucks, but I wonder why the pity party has to go on for so long. Why is it that some people relish in their own demise while others see the opportunity that forced transition creates. One woman I know in Seattle sees the writing on the wall in her company and is taking evasive action to change her course before they change if for her. She isn’t closing her eyes, baring down, and waiting for the hammer to fall. When the hammer falls, she’ll be picking up her new business cards from the printer.

I love what is happening in this economy. I love that the old growth and the old mindsets are dying, not because they want to, but because it just doesn’t work anymore. I love the fact that the financial system is in crisis. Any business model that loans money without security of getting it repaid is idiotic and deserves to be obliterated. There are casualties in the banks, but those loan officers who were taking ‘proof of income’ on the back of a bar napkin had to know that what they were doing was wrong. Don’t cry for the homeowners who lost homes they couldn’t afford when they lost their jobs. They knew they couldn’t afford the homes when they bought them, but they HOPED that they would make it by. Well, guess that didn’t turn out the way they wanted, but in their hearts they aren’t surprised.

Am I ranting for any particular reason? Yes…if you don’t like what’s going on, it’s your fault. Change it! Change things. Change the way you approach your challenges, your situation, and your life. Being a victim doesn’t solve anything. Stand up, step out, and be part of the change rather than thinking how hard life has been to you. We all come out the same way when we are born and regardless of your upbringing, you can make decisions  that will maximize your minimize your life. If you want to hear sad stories, talk to billionaires. They all have had shitty lives. Mothers dying when they were kids, fathers who drank and smacked them around, homeless and living in cars. The point is, they made decisions to not let what happened in their life effect the quality of life they ended up having. They were not a sum of their experiences. They succeeded in spite of their challenges.

Winners do what losers won’t. There are a lot of losers out there right now if you want to model that behaviour. If however you want to watch a winner, look at the little kid practicing her soccer skills until her mom calls her in for bed, the woman who survives breast cancer only to donate her time to support other women going through the same, or any immigrant who comes to North America with the clothes on their back and a dream to have a better life. These are winners and remind us that “if you want it..you must claim it.” No one is going to do it for you so take responsibility and live large!