The Best Advice I Ever Got .... Thanks Mom

Many years ago my mother gave me an important key for success which has always stuck in my mind.  In fact, it may be the single most important factor in success.

To succeed, Mom said:  "You have to do what needs to done, when it needs to be done, regardless of whether you want to do it or not." 


Then she went on to illustrate it with a story about my grandmother.  My grandfather owned a hardware store in a town in Iowa.  When the Great Depression struck, starting in 1930, my grandfather sold many small hardware items to people in town on credit if they had little or no cash with which to pay.  Eventually, this began to catch up with him, because he ran short of cash to buy more inventory and even to the point of beginning to crimp cash with which to run their home.

It was a fairly small town, in which my grandfather, his brother, and father had interests in the hardware store, a feed mill, and the bank.  In other words, they were a relatively prominent family in town.  This is where my grandmother fits into the story.  (She, by the way, had a bachelors degree from the University of Iowa.)

Grandma determined that they had to start collecting some of the money from people who owed for hardware items, that my grandfather, out of generosity, had sold on credit.  Thus, every week Grandma spent one day out walking from door to door of those who owed money.  She asked for whatever they could spare, be it even so little as a nickle or a dime.  She did this every week, regardless of the weather, rain or shine, snow, cold; no matter what, it had to be done.


I would add  "recognizing, determining or knowing what needs to be done" because this is a logical first step.

 Now the whole lesson becomes:  

"Determine what needs to be done and then do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, regardless of whether you want to do it or not."

 

To do this sometimes requires sacrifice or hard work or doing the hard job instead of the easy job.   It requires action now, not at some point in the future, when it may be more convenient.

Mom had a couple of other illustrations too, which I am choosing not to share here.



This is for success in anything, not just business.