Vast Project, Half-vast Commitment

You have a dream, a hope for the future. But are you willing to spend what it costs to achieve it, endure what is required of you and fight for as long as it takes?

Unrelenting action is what turns starry-eyed daydreams into steely-eyed objectives.

You say you have a goal.

Let me look into your eyes.

Now tell me what you did today.

Unrelenting Action

(From the Monday Morning Memo of Oct. 27, 2002)

Would you like to learn the magic of the elbs?

Elbs are Exponential Little Bits, tiny but relentless changes that compound to make a miracle.

The power of an elb lies not in its size, but in its daily occurrence. For an elb to work its Exponential magic, the Little Bit must happen every day… every day… every day.

Every day.

Funny thing… When daily progress meets with progress, it doesn’t add, it multiplies.

To harness the magic of Exponential Little Bits you must learn to ask yourself, “What difference have I made today?” And never go to sleep until you have done a Little Bit to move yourself closer to your goal.

But you must do a Little Bit every day, no matter how tiny it might be.

Exponential Little Bits work both ways. They can lift you up or hold you back.

Start with a dollar. Double it every day for just 20 days and you’ll have 2,097,150 dollars. But if you diminish each day’s total by just 10 percent (a Little Bit) before the next day’s doubling, you’ll amass only 793,564 dollars. Diminish each day’s doubling by 35 percent (a larger Little Bit) and you’ll have only 56,784 dollars – a shortfall of 95.83 percent.

There is nuclear power in the elbs.

Now that you understand the process,

you’re going to need a role model.

A Society and Its Heroes

(From the Monday Morning Memo of Feb. 17, 2003)

Heroes are dangerous things. Bigger than life, highly exaggerated and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie.

We have historic heroes, folk heroes and comic book heroes. We have heroes in books and songs and movies and sport. We have heroes of morality, leadership, kindness and excellence. And nothing is so devastating to our sense of wellbeing as a badly fallen hero. Yes, heroes are dangerous things to have.

The only thing more dangerous is not to have them.

Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They are ever-present tattoos on our psyche, the embodiment of all we are striving to be. We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams.

And then they attempt to create us in their own image.

The Value of Heroes

(From Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, 2001)

The saying, “The sun never sets on the British Empire” was true as recently as 1937 when tiny England did, in fact, still have possessions in each of the world’s 24 time zones. It’s widely known that the British explored, conquered and ruled much of the world for a number of years, but what isn’t as widely known is what made them believe they could do it.

For the first 1000 years after Christ, Greece and Rome were the only nations telling stories of heroes and champions. England was just a dreary little island of rejects, castoffs and losers.

So who inspired tiny, foggy England to rise up and take over the world?

A simple Welsh monk named Geoffrey – hoping to instill in his countrymen a sense of pride – assembled a history of England that gave his people a grand and glorious pedigree. Published in 1136, Geoffrey’s “History of the Kings of Britain,” was a detailed, written account of the deeds of the English people for each of the 17 centuries prior to 689 AD… and not a single word of it was true. Yet in creating Merlyn, Guinevere, Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table from the fabric of his imagination, Geoffrey of Monmouth convinced a sad little island of rejects, castoffs and losers to see themselves as a just and magnificent nation.

And not long after they began to see themselves that way in their minds, they began seeing themselves that way in the mirror.

Most people assume that legends, myths and stories of heroes are the byproducts of great civilizations, but I’m convinced they are the cause of them. Throughout history, the mightiest civilizations have been the ones with stories of heroes; larger-than-life role models that inspired ordinary citizens to rise up and do amazing things.

It’s no secret that people will do in reality what they have seen themselves do in their minds.

What do you see yourself doing?

Are you a person who gets things done?

People who get things done

push past the idea that “now is not a good time.”

People who get things done

believe that a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

People who get things done

leap off the edge, trusting that a net will appear.

People who get things done

build their rocket ship while they’re flying it.*

Unrelenting action

is what turns starry-eyed daydreams

into steely-eyed objectives.

You say you have a goal.

Let me look into your eyes.

Now tell me what you’re going to do today.

Roy H. Williams