"Someday I will definitely ________________________."

In the third week of April, 1991, I was told by Dr. Greg Loomis, Albany Medical Center superstar neurosurgeon, that the bulging & herniated discs, acute chronic cervical arthritis, extensive nerve damage, cervical AND lumbrosacral radiculopathy, & other mechanical damages sustained in a 100+ MPH collision, would leave me in a wheelchair for life: no surgery, no therapy, no pharmaceutical protocols would ever change this inevitable outcome. His opinion was supported by 4 other orthopedic/neurological specialists. To boot, I was "marked" as a loser by my own family who pretty well disowned me, voicing their certitude that I would never amount to anything... ever.I made a decision {from the Latin root that means "to cut off" (from any other possibility)} to study all I could find on how to go from "Loser" to "Winner," & how to defeat massive medical challenges. Between 4/91 & 12/94, I read more than 1700 books on these subjects & was blessed by the gifts of Monsignor Bernard Kellogg, rest in peace, who saw more in me than my own flesh and blood did. He invested thousands of dollars, purchasing for me tape cassettes, videos, laser discs, books, & more. I studied these subjects 10-16 hrs pr day. I sought commonalities, & began PUTTING THEM TO USE. I came home to LI with a box of sweatsuits, nine boxes of the most advanced research in cybernetic functions of the human brain/body, psychoneuroimmunology, peak performance by 5200 of the most successful human beings of the past 300 years; & case histories of 1500 "golden losers," people who had turned horrid challenges into successful lives. Many of them are people whose names you will recognize. I also had $180 in cash. Have I changed the worldsince then? Of course not; yet, when I wake up each day, I AM excited about today. I've obtained an executive position, I have a $15,000 wardrobe, two cars, two motorcycles; a variety of advanced electronic "toys," such as the computer I'm producing this on; hundreds of CD's; thousands of dollars in the bank; I've paid off 8 grand in debts, & still manage to carry a couple of thousand in pocket. Best of all, I get to invest time and other resources into working with some s e r i o u s l y disadvantaged people, & what a payoff that is! You'd be seriously mistaken if you think that these past few paragraphs are designed to impress you. Not by a long shot: I am hoping to impress UPON you a very basic set of axioms: If you are capable of determining: precisely what it is you want, setting a deadline for its achievement enumerating the expected obstacles the people who can help you the skills/info you'll need a step-by-step plan of action, and a clear reason for doing it (WHY? Precisely how will I benefit?), you'll see that you have taken the beginning steps that have been consciously or not-so-consciously taken by each and every successful human being of those 5200 I studied. Please believe me: knowing this information is not enough. Contrary to popular belief, knowledge is NOT power:it is only potential power. It becomes power only when we take ACTION upon that knowledge. The Latins & Greeks knew what they were doing when they created our language. For example, look at the word SATISFACTION. "SATISFACTION" is a feeling, right? If you want satisfaction in life, we first have to look at the last six letters of the word satisfaction.Look carefully. Now, look at the "fac" in the middle.It comes from the Latin root (facere) meaning "to create," as in "manufacture." Next, look at the first five letters of "satisfaction:" "Satis" (pronounced saTEESE) means "adequate" or "sufficient." Put them all together, and you 'll understand that when you create sufficient action, you get a feeling. That feeling is what we call "satisfaction." At age 32, twice-bankrupted, undesirably discharged from the US Navy, and dead broke, Walter walked into a bank w/ a hand puppet named "Steamboat Willie," & in the falsetto voice of his puppet tried to get a loan to promote his puppet. Needless to say, they laughed him out of the bank. So did the next bank... and the next. Can you imagine the chutzpah of someone taking a hand puppet to TWENTY-FIVE different banks, trying to get a loan? Preposterous! Most of us would have given up after 5 or 6 or 7, or maybe even just one or two tries. Every one of the 25 banks turned him down. Did he quit? Not a chance. You see, he understood that persistence overcomes just about every obstacle known to Mankind: at least there have been so few exceptions to this rule thus far, and Mankind has been around awhile, at least 30 or more years that I know of. That's why he went to 30 banks, & then 40. A total of, are you ready for this?..... EIGHTY-FOUR BANKS TURNED HIM DOWN! When he had nothing but himself & a dream to believe in, he was more successful than most of the financially wealthy people I know... because he never ever ever stopped trying. Bank # 85 lent him $1500... and he changed Steamboat Willie's name, a name I'm sure you will recognize: Mickey Mouse. What a wonderful role model Walt Disney is for me. Talk is cheap. Keep banging the clock, making it to Friday, so that you can piss away the weekend in order to bang again next week so that you can make it to the weekend, for the purpose of recharging your batteries & going out the following week to bang ou.... get the hint?

Losers list all of the reasons why it can't be done.... Winners list ways to get it done. Losers fix the blame. Winners fix the problem. Losers punch clocks endlessly... Winners USE their time for their own achievement. People who do not have clear-cut goals for themselves INEVITABLY serve someone else who does.Do you understand the truth of this? Are you smart enough to DO something w/ this info?

What's it gonna be? Got a few minutes for yourself? Why not take a look at what's possible in YOUR life? Once again, you are asked a few questions. Since repetition has proven to be the mother of all skill, (with a nod to Tony Robbins) maybe this will be the day that you go just one or two steps further than you did yesterday, because knowing the answers doesn't move you forwards one iota; rather, it keeps you in the same place, thinking the same things, doing things the same way... ... ... and getting the same results. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ALOUD, please. Do you have time for questions about the rest of YOUR life? Do you understand that if you don't know precisely where you are going... you'll probably end up somewhere else? Now we realize, and do see that most of the people who read this... ESPECIALLY you college graduates... are waaaaaay too stupid to actually change. You've all got excellent "reasons" for just why it is you're not taking more steps TODAY towards making YOUR dreams come true. We do know that up to seven of every one hundred people who read these words, REGARDLESS OF YOUR EDUCATION, or FINANCES, or FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES, etc... will be smart enough to put the tools of Success to work for them in the next 60 minutes. The proof? One year from today you're invited to sit down and account for these next twelve months... in terms of what you (and I) have, or haven't done... toward the achievement of our long-term desires and goals. As for immediate proof, well, we'll have that in the next sixty minutes, won't we? You'll either treat the next hour of your life with excellence, or you won't. ... and there's our proof. It's an open invitation... to those precious few who agree with Albert Einstein's assertion that genius is nothing more, or less, than the infinite ability to take infinite pains... ... an infinite number of times. We already know the outcome in advance: up to seven of every hundred will stop yabbering and use more of the resources already at their disposal... including the valuable information provided by those who are already succeeding repeatedly at a world-class level. That's what we call 'the horse's mouth.' 1) What do you most want? 2) Who can help you to get it? 3) Precisely when do you want it by? 4) What five smaller steps will make this happen? Talk is cheap. Let's get busy.