August 17, 2020 – Click here to listen
Twenty years ago I was building a software development company. When I wrote Words for the Day on this day, I wrote this message to my followers:
Several of my acquaintances of late have been criticizing my ambition and goal for desiring to make Horizon Software International the number one food service technology company in the WORLD. They have repeatedly warned me not to let the company get too big and have urged me to keep it small. “It is the only smart way to go.” “Why work so hard?” “Can’t you be satisfied?” “How much money do you need?”, are some of the comments.
This line of thinking is reminiscent to me of the time when I had experienced theft and embezzlement of a grand scale in one of my former companies. Things looked hopeless and if survival was to occur, it would take YEARS of hard work to repair the damage. My accountant urged me to just take bankruptcy and give up on my dream of owning and managing my own company and urged me to go to work for someone else. “Why fight it? Why work so hard? You can get a good job with practically anyone and not have to work nearly this hard”, he said.
I did not take bankruptcy and struggled through the years of hard times. I rebuilt that company to its former state and eventually sold it at a profit. I’m glad I did.
I really like two quotes from a couple of past Presidents of the United States, (who had good character), that often serve to help motivate me during times of stress, or when listening to naysayers. Abraham Lincoln said: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
They said it far more eloquently than me. My business aspirations aren’t about making more money, it is about getting into the arena, competing and achieving a lofty goal. It is about reaching for something that ordinary people will never achieve because too often they listen to their own naysayers and/or are too afraid to reach for the moon.
Life ain’t no dress rehearsal. We only have this little 70-80 year stretch to achieve whatever we can achieve, then it is too late. It will pass quickly. I say that we should live each day to its fullest, try to achieve the greatest possible things that God has given us the ability to achieve, and when we are old and feeble and look back on our lives, we can do so without wondering whether or not we could have made it, if only we would have tried.
Well my friends, life has indeed passed quickly. I read the other day that the actor who played Lamont in Sanford and Sons recently died. He was 91 years old… Hard to believe that one I tell you.
When you are tired and discouraged and wonder if it’s “all worth it” remember the presidential quotes above, it helps me. And keep in mind what the good Lord promises about our short life on this earth in His Holy Bible . . .
James 4:14
. . . For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.