Too Jaded To Be Motivated?

Yesterday, I went to a mega-business seminar at Reunion Arena in Dallas. It was so big, in fact, that the crowd filling the entire lower bowl of Reunion was really the spill-over crowd. The really big gathering was down the street in the newer, larger American Airlines Arena.

Truthfully, I went there the same way I go to all such meetings, with a suspicious mind, expecting to be rah-rah'd to death. As far as the Master of Ceremonies and the host company were concerned, I got precisely what I expected. Cheese, man! Cheesy cheese.

Peter and Tamara Lowe, the couple behind these gatherings, have been at it for two decades. They look like Ken and Barbie, if Ken were redheaded and goofy-looking and Barbie had Tammie Faye Bakker hair. The Master of Ceremonies for the day was annoying enough to wish for a marksman with a tranquilizer gun to take aim from the balcony...whether at him or me is immaterial.

That said, I found myself motivated. I did. Steve Forbes was the lead-off speaker. He was engaging, lucid, full of real-life examples of ordinary people who persevered to achieve extraordinay things. The Zig Ziglar representative, a fellow who was maybe the best speaker of the day but whose name escapes me, made me laugh with his well-timed jokes...and think about what it is I am doing and where I am headed.

But the words that landed the most heavily on my glass jaw came from super-duper salesman Brian Tracy. First, he warned about living your life on a place called "Someday Isle." You know, "Someday, I'll take a stab at that business idea I have that would revolutionize the so-and-so industry." Or, "Someday, I'll work harder, dedicate myself more, figure this thing out." Not today, of course. I'm tired. The boss is beating me down. The kids won't shut up...and neither will the wife.

Tracy went on to ask for a show of hands from the people who were self-employed in the crowd. Maybe one-fourth raised their hands. He proceeded to tell the rest of the crowd to get their hands up, too. The truth is we are ALL self-employed. No matter where you ply your wares, you are an independent contractor selling your services to the highest bidder. You aren't in business for some major department store or pharmaceutical company or grocery chain. You are in business for yourself. You work for your future, your family, your retirement, your dreams, your goals.

That...struck a chord with me. If you look at your job that way, it can't help but change your approach, can it? It is...empowering, but it also places the responsibility for yourself squarely on your own shoulders. At least, that is how I see it.

So...yeah, I'm still jaded, but motivated. And that's OK, right?