Play the hand you were dealt….NOW!!

“There are those that make things happen,

Those that watch things happen,

And those that wonder what happened.”

Far too often, when I meet with entreprenuers, I realize that “waiting” is a major “activity” in their week.  Buying an ad and waiting.  Waiting for things to “turn around”.  Waiting to hear something.  Waiting for the right opportunity.  Waiting to get “in front of the right people”.   

This “waiting” game frustrates me because I know the truth.  The simple truth is this:  Wait and you will STARVE!     You see, the majority of people will wait.  They will wait for ideal conditions.  They will wait for the risk to diminish.  They will wait for SOMETHING to happen.  They will wait for good news.    Essentially, they are the “watchers” of what is happening, and they will not meet their goals. 

On the other hand, those who are pro-actively creating their own good news will thrive!!  These people, as Dr. Gene Landrum puts it, “draw for aces, but play what they have with panache and bravado.”  In short, they play the hand they are dealt and they stay in action.  Consider this: 

After losing EVERYTHING in a previous business endeavor, George Douglass sat in his empty living room needing cash FAST.  He took stock of the “aces” he had in his possession.  He had 83 copies of Think and Grow Rich and a few broken down auto-dialers.  How could he leverage the hand he was dealt?    He began calling insurance agents, mortgage brokers and real estate agents offering a free workshop on how to use auto -dialers for business success.  Anyone who attended his workshop received a copy of Think and Grow Rich .  He started fixing those auto-dialers and managed to sell eight of them and rent several more through his free workshop.  He got the cash he needed and began an entirely new business. 

George Foreman was a washed-up fighter before his “second act”.  My friend Sam Beckford (known around the world as The Small Business Millionaire) failed six times in business and, at one point, couldn’t afford groceries for his family.  Lee Milteer’s business took a nose-dive after 9-11.  So did Steve Chandler’s.  None of these people “waited” for things to happen or for things to change.  If they had, you and I would never have heard of them.  ALL of them made an unbreakable “deal” with themselves and committed to MAKING things happen instead of “waiting”. 

Steven Covey says, “We are responsible for our own effectiveness, for our own happiness.”  I would add, “We alone are responsible for our own success.”    

We can’t always control the hand we’ve been dealt.  But we can always control how we play it!   Play with confidence, boldness, bravado and panache! Play to win BIG!  The “pack” will wait.  To leverage your own “WOW Factor”, commit to doing the opposite!!