Captains Blog, 1/31/2010: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">

Illegitimi non carborundum. "Don't let the bastards grind you down".

This mock Latin phrase from WWII even today, accents the fact that determination to succeed must come from within.  Like it or not, most of our perceived friends do not really want us to be more successful than they are.  After all, “birds of a feather….”

Somewhere along the line, in order to flourish, you must break ranks with the ordinary. Extraordinary results require extraordinary effort.  And perhaps the first effort we must make is to distance ourselves from the naysayers that surround us and to understand that “can” is less complicated than “can’t”.   Difficult tasks are usually illusions, but we tend to see things in the same way as our peers see things.  Thus when people find out that I am undertaking a career change focused on IM, frequently they roll their eyes as if they know what I don’t know, and that sooner or later I will return to the fold of the ordinary, safe and mundane way of life that they know.  Their ‘wisdom’ will hold you down if you let it, and if you hear something enough times, it tends to modify your attitude as well as your ambition.  After all what right do you have to be more successful than they?  Shouldn’t one be happy with the status quo?

Now I have no intention to cut loose all my friends and loved ones that I have accumulated over the last 5 decades. Instead I am looking to expand my relationships to include others who hear the same rallying cry.  We all need positive feedback, no one is an island unto themselves, and it is to that end I have joined WA.

Here, I expect to find like minds that understand, those who encourage the road less traveled.

Twenty eight years ago, my father, brother and I set out to build a 150 passenger paddlewheel boat.  We had a set of plans and two books on boat building and welding techniques, that was it.  People shook their heads.  At times I felt like Noah.  Although these people were my friends, they tended to cling to the belief that big projects require big organizations or superhuman powers. But every now and then someone would show up at the yard with constructive tips and encouragement, not often, but enough to help us get around certain ways of looking at things that limited us.  It only takes 1 in 20 to help set you free, if you look for the can instead of can’t.  The reality was that one step at a time, creates.  Big complicated projects are usually lots of small steps.  People ask me, “How did you build that big boat?”  The answer is one piece at a time.  Today, after 25 years of commercially operating that same boat all up and down the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"> Ohio and Mississippi rivers, it is now my home, (see my profile). If we had listened to the many who said can’t instead of the few who said can, I would not be able to wake up each morning knowing I live my dream. Nor would I entertain bigger dreams yet to be fulfilled as I do. Remember, the faint of heart, simply faint.   

I am really thrilled to be a part of WA, because I believe that it is here that I will find the ‘1 in 20’. Here is where the cans have gathered.  It is here that I EXPECT, (not hope), to find successful techniques worth emulating, and then modifying.  It is here that I look to find those I can help as well as those who can help me.

At this juncture, I don’t know much about IM, very little actually.  But I assure you that I am capable of BIG THINGS, we ALL are endowed with that gift; one piece at time will get it done.  When the day comes that I can contribute to knowledge base of technique here at WA, I assure you I will.  Meanwhile, right now I am in the listen and copy mode, so talk to me please, I am listening.

You can, I can, we all can.  Doing is.  Anybody wanna go for a boat ride?