What’s the secret to becoming a doer from a dreamer?
An activist from a moaner and groaner?
An agent for change from an armchair philosopher?
An achiever from an admiring watcher from the sidelines?
Simple.
Take the first step.
The First Step can Change Everything
The first post or article we write.
The first song we compose or sing.
The first dish we cook.
The first audition we go to.
The first presentation we make.
The first rock we climb.
The first fear we conquer.
The first emotional victory we achieve.
The first business step.
The first day of being clean.
First steps lead to bigger steps.
This I have seen.
From
Sunshine Foods to Trident Fabrications
There is a hamburger cart in Bangalore which bears the sign
“Sunshine Foods”. This cart was one of the first steps in the amazing entrepreneurial
journey of my brother-in-law Arun. Even before completing his engineering, he took up a machining contract from Mico and used a friend's shed on Tannery Road to execute the work with his friend Chakrapani's help. After getting his engineering degree, he started making helmets in his garage. Then he
met a friend out of catering college and the two of them came up with the idea
for Sunshine Foods. From selling burgers from a cart and fabricating helmets, Arun
went on to set up 2 industrial plants in Peenya
to design and manufacture a wide range of products for the
transportation industry, including earth mover cabins and seats. Recently he
spread his wings and developed Sundance serviced apartments in a prestigious
locale in Bangalore. Arun is a great example
of what a single person with a vision can do when they take the first step. And one of the first steps in Arun’s
entrepreneurial journey was Sunshine Foods.
From
Ungal Butterfly to Slum Dog Millionaire
Ungal Butterly was a jingle composed for a tv commercial
for the Butterfly range of cookware. It marked one of the early steps in the musical journey of A.
R. Rahman. From this ordinary beginning
of composing and recording jingles for tv commercials, A.R. Rahman went on to
become a leading composer in the Indian film industry, and eventually a global
sensation as the well-known creator of the soundtrack for Slum Dog Millionaire.
From
driving a single garbage truck to being at the helm of 3 Fortune 500 companies
In the 60’s, a garbage truck made its way around a Florida
suburb from 2:30 a.m. till noon every day. Its owner-driver was Wayne Huizenga.
That garbage truck was the start of an amazing business story in which Wayne founded
Waste Management and bought 133 garbage hauling companies to create the largest
waste disposal company in America. Wayne
would go on to create two other Fortune 500 companies - Block Buster and Auto
Nation. And it all started with a single garbage truck he bought as a teen.
The
First Step
Whatever our goal - financial, entrepreneurial, physical, emotional,
spiritual or creative…it all starts with the first step.
When we take that first step, we are on our way.
We get connected with what we want from our lives.
Even if it’s different from what everyone else wants.
Even if it’s different from what others think we should
want.
The first step may be a garbage truck.
A hamburger cart.
A jingle for a commercial.
A car wash service.
A batch of cupcakes.
Only we know where we can go with that.
Others may not be able to see at all.
They cannot see beyond our first step. They will take it at
face value.
When college-going classmates saw Wayne picking up
garbage in his garbage truck, one of the classmates looked at another classmate and
said– “just imagine that might have been us - driving a garbage truck!” The
classmate had no idea. Wayne had big plans. Owning and driving the garbage truck was just
the first step. He did not know the
vision Wayne had for himself. He did not know where that vision would end up
taking Wayne. To the top. To making him the owner of the largest waste
disposal company in America. And much more.
Following
Our Vision
The first step.
Taking it means not letting anything hold us back from our vision.
The weight of our parents' achievements and expectations.
The weight of the values (and sometimes hot buttons) of the
people in our lives – our family and friends.
The weight of what everyone else is doing. (Majority
thinking).
Following our vision will require us to be strong and individual.
We are socialized to think in terms of “what can I do which
will make the maximum income and bestow on me the maximum status and allow me
to buy a fancy house and furnish it with envious appliances and furnishings and
have a fancy car and clothes to go with it and go on fancy vacations?”
We will have to buck that.
We will have to ignore the voice in our heads that says “am
I crazy – to be wanting to drive a garbage truck, to sell hamburgers from a
cart? I should just follow the crowd.”
Don’t.
Don’t be afraid to think what you think.
Don’t be afraid to want what you want.
Don’t be afraid of the ideas you have.
When people go on a vacation to Italy and we see the work
of Michael Angelo or Leonardo da Vinci, no one stops to think:” Why aren’t our
times like the Renaissance? What would
it take for a modern day Michael Angelo and a modern day Leonardo da Vinci to
flourish?”
Maybe you have thoughts like this.
A Renaissance type flowering of the arts in our lives is
possible.
I am not too cynical to hope for it in my lifetime.
One reason why artists flourished during the Renaissance was
because people invited them to compete for art commissions.
Can we promote art in our times doing something similar?
I invite you to think about this.
I thought about it and came up with the idea of One Wall.
One Wall would be an online site which would showcase various artists who could
offer their services to the public.
Maybe, like Michael Angelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,
people could sign up to have a modern day Michael Angelo paint one wall of their home.
If everyone had one wall of their house painted by an
artist, we would have a lot more art in our lives, it would help the arts to
flourish, and we would cherish our houses more - think of them as beautiful
keepsakes rather than as investments.
Anybody ready to take up the challenge of creating One
Wall? I hope someone somewhere will read
this post and make it happen. Or come up
with their own idea to create a Renaissance in our times. The idea can be
extended. One Song (you select from different bands to compose and perform one
song for you – a birthday song, wedding song). One Skit. And so on and so on.
But back to what I was saying about taking the first step.
Here are some of the first steps I took in my life I am so
very grateful I took and am happy about till today…..
Starting
this blog
As many of you know, this blog means the world to me. The
first step I took to get it going was writing and publishing my first post 4 Decisions I Wish I Had Made Earlier. This was on December 27, 2010. I am now on my two hundred and twenty second
post. Yay.
Learning
to Meditate
As my post Connected Minds states, my life changed in many
different and wonderful ways after learning to meditate. The first step I took was to apply the
technique suggested in the book How God Changes Your Brain. Initially, it was hard to go for 20 minutes,
but I kept at it and now it’s a regular part of my life and I never watch the
clock.
Starting
Purple Patch
Running my own creative shop -Purple Patch – was a hugely
fulfilling experience for me. The first
step I took was to leave HTA and spread the word about my availability for
freelance creative work. I did this knowing
full well I might fail and have to eat a large slice of humble pie. But Yay - Purple Patch had a great run and even
spawned the careers of two other copywriters.
Becoming
an SPM Consultant
I love being an SPM Consultant. It has given me the opportunity to work at
several different companies and on several different implementations and
projects. It has given me exposure to
sales commission plans in a variety of different companies – Trepp, Salesforce,
Splunk, Fusion IO, Lynda, Epicor, White Hat, Cyberonics and Varian
Medical. And I have met and maintain
contact with several wonderful people whom I met on assignment. The first
step to becoming an SPM consultant was not letting a bad economy stop me from giving
up my full time job as a commissions analyst.
With a few strategic steps -and
the good fortune to get connected with Solution Partners and Spectrum
Technologies -, I have been able to enjoy this for 3 years running.
Giving
Up Anger
As you know from my posts The Path To Change and How Many Times A Day Do You Visit Ireland?, learning to deal with my anger issues is one of my
big emotional victories. My first step was to
observe the thoughts in my head while angry and not act on them. When you do that, typically the thoughts
subside and the anger goes away.
Expressed anger usually leads to more anger, as in “I can’t believe you
made me so angry that I said that or did that”.
Getting
Over My Fear of Public Speaking
Most people have a fear of public speaking. Mine was a crippling fear. The first step to
dealing with it was to join Toastmasters and do my Icebreaker speech. Before I
knew it, I had completed the 9 other speeches and earned my CTM badge. And all
I had to do was take the first step of joining Toastmasters.
What are the first steps you have taken in your life?
And what first steps are you getting ready to take?
What is big in your heart to do?
A new direction?
An unexplored creative pursuit?
A secret passion?
A new idea?
A desire to share the truth about yourself with the world?
Well, you know what you have to do.
Just one thing…..
....take the first step!
As
always thanks for reading and have a great day and week…I hope this post will inspire future Aruns, future A.R. Rahmans, future Wayne Huizengas.......M….a Pearl-Seeker like you. P.S. If you need further
inspiration to take that first step, read my post What's Next For You? and my post The Element of Release from Inhibition and Its Hope for Discovering Our Creative Self.
1 comment:
Brilliant and insightful minoo..so very inspiring!!!
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