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Kerry
Daigle |
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KEEP PUNCHING
I want to personally thank all of you who read this article every month in The Acadian and send me emails, cards, phone calls, and visit our guestbook on
www.keeppunching.com with all the nice comments and suggestions. I appreciate you more than you think. We know you are now thinking more positive and writing down your goals. Just this past week someone approached me stating they quit reading and listening to personal development material because a friend tells them they don’t need it. They are then told all they have to do is WORK HARD!! I believe some of that is true, however, I believe in time leverage and working SMART vs HARD with your ears and eyes wide open. Success, whether it is personal or financial, has everything to do with your ‘attitude’ and ‘you’ personally creating your own opportunities.
Think about it. Your mind will create all the influence in your life so….. naturally…… you would want your mind thinking
‘positive thoughts’ which actually create opportunities. Your friends that say just working hard is the answer are WRONG. I hate to say it but it’s a fact. Working smart creates windows of opportunites. Always does and always will. And again I’m not talking about LUCK…….I am talking about WORK…………….but SMART WORK. with Kerry Daigle FAILURE IS THE FIRST STEP TO YOUR SUCCESS 
Paw Paw Daigle I’ve followed that philosophy all of my adult years. Earl Nightingale wrote, “Security isn’t what the wise person looks for; its opportunity. Quoting B. C. Forbes next, he says, “Opportunity can be spelled with four letters. But these letters are not L-U-C-K. They are W-O-R-K. Smart work!” Many of you remember the trials and tribulations of our great President, Abraham Lincoln as he was challenged for two decades in losing battles in politics to later become President of the United States. His comments were: ‘I will study and prepare myself and someday my chance will come’. The world gives each of us all the opportunity for fame, fortune, wealth, happiness, success, and security that we want. Every day, each of us walks by more opportunity than we could ever develop in a lifetime. What we fail to understand is that as abundant as opportunity is, it is also the master of the art of disguise. It is usually hitting us right between the eyes in familiar surroundings and offered to us unsuspectedly. Opportunity doesn’t have a huge blinking red light attached to it saying, “OPPORTUNITY HERE…..WATCH CAREFULLY”. It is usually well hidden. You have to be able to sense it. Your radar has to always be up listening and watching as life passes you by. Most people find misfortune before finding opportunity. I know I did. I failed at several things for many years before finding opportunity but I was always ‘keeping an eye open’ and learning from my misfortunes. I remember early in my career when I was challenged with a ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘labeled’ by many, as a ‘failure’. Financial institutions avoided me like I had a communicable disease. Being labeled ‘a failure’ wasn’t a happy time in my life but I learned so much from those challenging days. In fact, my reading on this misfortune was different. “This is happening for a reason. It is a learning experience. What can I learn from this?” I looked at it as climbing a mountain. I was halfway up the mountain when I fell. I overlooked a few things, possibly a loose rope and poor footing and then I fell. I was scarred pretty bad and crippled for a period of time but continually attempted to climb the mountain again but this time with more caution and learning from my mistakes. I knew I would reach the top! I just didn’t know when. I just knew I wouldn’t quit until I did. Those who ridiculed me or said I couldn’t climb that mountain didn’t see the fire in my eyes or felt the ‘intestinal fortitude’ I carried in my heart. I remember reading about Fred Astaire’s first screen test. A MGM director wrote on a memo in 1933 the following words, “CAN’T ACT! SLIGHTLY BALD! CAN DANCE A ‘LITTLE’. Fred Astaire kept that memo over his fireplace in his Beverly Hills home for years in a ‘frame’. That director couldn’t feel Astaire’s heart and couldn’t see the desire in his eyes for success. Astaire knew it was there and he wouldn’t let anyone steal his dreams. I’m certain you know the rest of the story on Fred Astaire. How about the story of the young man who was an unsuccessful marketer of restaurant equipment? This is the same man who sold his first hamburger at the age of 52 and had a dream of selling ‘billions’ of his hamburgers when most people were considering ‘slowing down’ and retiring. Today RAY KROC owns the world’s largest food chain, MC DONALD’S. Mr. Kroc didn’t look anywhere else for an answer when he sold his first hamburger and didn’t make the financial gains he expected early on. He just kept on with his dream and his belief system that he could sell more hamburgers than anyone else in the world could. His friends and associates in the early years actually laughed at his desires and dreams. The secret was Mr. Kroc didn’t laugh. He knew what he could do and he challenged himself. The rest is history. Emotions sometimes lead you into different directions. When Dick Clark’s older brother was killed in World War II, he withdrew into a ‘shell’. Then he began listening to the radio to ease his pain and hurt from his brother’s death. He started ‘dreaming’ about hosting his own radio show. That ‘dream’ led DICK CLARK to start AMERICAN BANDSTAND. Maw Maw Daigle always told me that dreams can turn into fairy tales and fairy tales into miracles. I believe that happened to Dick Clark. He led a fairy tale life. Another interesting fact is about the gentleman who was ‘fired’ by his newspaper boss for ‘lacking desire and ideas’. This gentleman went on to bankruptcy several times before he built DISNEYLAND……….His name is WALT DISNEY. Discouragement, ridicule, and negative feedback to Walt Disney didn’t phase him. We have to be alert enough and keep a positive mindset to examine why these things are happening to us and ask ourselves regularly as we are challenged with obstacles…..WHAT IS THIS SITUATION TEACHING ME?……WHAT WILL BE THE POSITIVE FROM THIS?….WHAT OPPORTUNITY EXISTS BEHIND THIS DARK CLOUD?” Sims and his late father, Billy Sandoz, attorneys from Opelousas, Louisiana, had this incredible faith in me and continued to relay the story about accepting failure as a lesson before true success would enter my life and that patience would always win out. Their faith in me taught me each and every day to always, always, keep punching. I will always be in total gratitude to them emotionally and loyal to the end and available 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the gifts they’ve given me. It was simple. I just needed to keep my eyes and ears open as an ‘opportunity’ would come knocking. I just needed to ALWAYS be prepared. The founder of Temple University, Russell Herman Conwell, traveled across the United States telling the classic story of ‘ACRES OF DIAMONDS’. The story goes like this: An African farmer heard about people who had made huge fortunes by discovering diamond mines. The farmer wanted to be rich, so he sold his farm and began a search across Africa for diamonds. He spent the rest of his life in a continued pursuit of the diamonds that would bring him wealth. Eventually broke, discouraged, and suicidal he threw himself into a river and drowned. Meanwhile, one day, the gentleman who purchased the farm from the African farmer, found a large stone in the stream that crossed his property. The stone turned out to be an enormously valuable diamond. He soon discovered that his farm was covered with diamonds. The farm became one of the world’s richest diamond mines. The first farmer had owned literally ‘acres of diamonds’ but had sold them for practically nothing in order to look for them elsewhere. The lesson to learn from this story is very important. Many people who look for excuses for their ‘non-success’ feel that opportunities are always greater somewhere else,, possibly in another company, in another town, in another line of work. And that could be true but before leaving your present grazing ground, examine it carefully and learn all you can. Each of us today listening to this story is quite possibly standing, right now, in the middle of our own ‘acres of diamonds’. My grandparents, Maw Maw and Paw Paw Daigle would say …..”We need the wisdom and patience to look intelligently at our present situations. We will find we can learn from where we are if we open our minds and hearts and find that many times they contain the riches we seek or the guidance to reach out and step further up the ladder. Before we seek ‘greener pastures’ let’s be certain that our “property or pasture” is not just as green…….. with the knowledge we need to better ourselves. Have we really looked for the diamonds or become discouraged and wanted to move forward before searching for the riches in what we have right in front of us now? Spend the necessary time and effort to become the best you can be at what you are doing before graduating to another level. There are no shortcuts in life or shortcuts to success. Every job or profession can lead you to greatness if you perform at your best. If you cannot become outstanding at what you are doing ‘right now’, how are you going to be outstanding at another profession until you achieve some level of success to help you climb that mountain? It doesn’t matter if you are an attorney, a salesman, or a ditch-digger. Be the best attorney, salesman, or ditch-digger you can be!! Excel at whatever your profession is. Somewhere in what you are doing today………no matter what it is that you do……..there is an opportunity which can bring you everything you can possibly want to bring you to the next level in your life. You may be standing in your own ‘Acres of Diamonds’ and you could be blind like the first farmer mentioned earlier in the story.
OLD SCOTTISH PROVERB Please feel free to write to me about any challenges you may be having in your career and I will be happy to address that possibly in my next article. I appreciate all of you and your time in reading this. Share THE ACADIAN with a friend so they can read about all the good things happening Acadiana. Keep Punching! 
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Kerry is a contributing writer for THE ACADIAN, a public speaker, an author and life coach specializing in mental fitness. More of his articles with THE ACADIAN can be found on www.keeppunching.com. There is also a guestbook for your personal comments on personal development. Kerry’s blend of wisdom, experience, and personal humility come together in unique and powerful insights that impact everyone he comes in contact with on a daily basis and believes everyone can truly have success in their lives by making a few changes. Kerry kindly asks of everyone to spread the word of THE ACADIAN to everyone you know to enlighten and lift their spirit with good news wanting to reach as many people as possible. Please help spread the word of KEEP PUNCHING so we can put a smile on someone’s face that is in need of one. You can email Kerry at kerry@keeppunching.com. We encourage you to write to us to share your thoughts and insights. Is there something that caught your attention that helped you in an article that you may want to share to help others? Let us know. Kerry is also available for consultations, speaking engagements and workshops. He has traveled all of North America and abroad to Europe and Australia as a keynote speaker. Inquire about his fees at www.keeppunching.com, writing him directly or calling 1.800.485.9323. Keep Punching! |
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