The Seventh Time I Heard This, It Stuck!
Just a little bit of advice can go a long way
I picked a man up from a small business- new to the area, from what I could tell- and made a joke with him about the name of the place. I was taking him for a twenty-five-minute trip to the airport, and I was trying to break the ice. He deflected my fun-making and told me that I had hit the nail on the head. “Did you just walk out of that place called Insurance Lounge?” “I sure did!” “Finally, the lighter side of insurance!
He went on to tell me about what he was doing there and how he was an investor. He worked with small businesses- those he expected to grow- and provided seed money. He told me that he used his money and the money of several other investors. I asked, and he told me about where his home base was. He told me that he was the CEO of his own company back in Idaho. He said he does travel a lot for work, but he assured me he loves what he does. Though he was wearing a mask, I felt like I could hear him smiling right through it. By the time we pulled up at the airport, the conversation felt like it was drawing to a natural end. That’s when he said it. Nothing I hadn’t heard before. In everything from Beastie Boys lyrics to sitcoms, on everything from bumper stickers to motivational posters, I’d heard it before. Maybe it was something about the way he said it, or maybe it was just that I was at the right place in my life to really hear it. A dear friend told me once that we need to hear things seven times before they really stick. Who among us hasn’t just been gobsmacked when we realized that the advice our parents gave us ten years ago was actually spot-on? “I love what I’m doing. If I didn’t need to make money, I’d probably still be doing this. I love going out and talking with people. I love hearing their stories and determining whether or not I can help them. I feel like I’m living a really good life. And that’s the thing: You just need to find something you love doing and do that — find something that you’re excited to get up out of bed and start doing. Once you’ve done that, you’ll never feel like you’re working!”
Reverse engineering to figure exactly how we’ve come to be where we are today is almost impossible. Things come together. Stars align. A butterfly flaps its wings. Once the final thing clicks, though, we can connect dots backward in time to find where the first domino fell. I had already signed up for Medium. I already paid my entry fee and already vaguely aspired to gather enough followers to monetize my writing. I had already started reading articles published by the friend who turned me on to the idea. Then I picked up this guy. He said what he said, which proved enough to get me started. It wasn’t an instant success. No clouds parted for angels to herald my arrival. I do feel like I have found that thing. I’m plugging away at it now, and I’m excited to be moving toward something that I want. Props out to that guy, whoever he was. It takes guts to offer advice. John Maxwell said, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know about how much you care.” Many other people say, “Sharing is caring.” This guy had nothing to gain from offering me his two cents, but he did. He felt like he had figured it out; he felt like he had something of value and wanted to share it. It can be tricky — not everyone is in a place where they can receive your advice. If we act like nobody can possibly benefit from what we have learned, then we go through life tight-lipped, and we end up holding on to things that could have really helped others. The thing is, at the end of the day, if we’d have given those things away, they would still be ours to hold on to.
It takes courage and no small degree of tact, but sometimes, when that voice inside you is telling you to speak up, let yourself be vulnerable enough to offer the help; the courage you exercise may be the brave wind necessary to set another’s hopes to sailing.
In veritas, MW Mercer
I really appreciate you devoting a little of your time today to read my work! I’m investing this time and energy from my life in order to transition away from selling my time away doing other things.
You can join Medium.com to read everything I write (and works from thousands of other great writers, too!) by clicking the link below. I’ll get a portion of the cost of your membership- only about $5/ month- and I’ll thank you very much!
