IS THERE SUCH A THING AS- SOMETHING FOR NOTHING?

Today is Good Friday, April 2, 2010, and this thought keeps running through my head, is there such a thing as – SOMETHING FOR NOTHING? As I scroll through the mental inventory that is my life, I am trying to come up with a situation where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was given and EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED was received….Guess what?…I couldn’t find one. What I found, it is easier to remember times when what I desired was received and what it took to achieve the desired outcome. I will give a few personal examples later but first l would like to talk about others. To do this, I will first list WHO, their DESIRED OUTCOME and what was GIVEN to produce that outcome….Please keep this in thought while you read- Every action produces a result and doing nothing also produces results.

US Founders

• Independence from Great Britain and Freedom and Liberty for US Citizens
• Material wealth, Loss of life and family

Harland David Sanders (Colonel Sanders)

• Bring his chicken recipe across America (at age 65 w/ $105)
• He was refused 1,009 times before he heard his first yes. His spent two years driving across America in his old, beat-up car, sleeping in the back seat in his rumpled white suit, getting up each day eager to share his idea with someone new

Nelson Mandela

• Multi-racial democracy in South Africa
• 27 years in prison

Abraham Lincoln

• Abolish slavery
• Reputation, personal safety and eventually his life

Mother Teresa

• To care for “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone”
• Dedicated entire adult life

Jesus

• Opportunity of salvation for all of mankind
• Gave HIS life on the cross

Every person who has ever walked this planet has had experiences where they had a BURNING DESIRE to achieve something. They paid the price and the DESIRE became reality. It is just the way it is. Although I am not a big fan of this, I see people every day huddled outside the convenience stores scratching lottery tickets with a desire to win. They will scratch away until they win. Whether these people realize it or not, they are willing to pay a price for those wins. Now , again, I don’t advocate this because the math doesn’t work….Imagine this, if they kept that same BURNING DESIRE to gain financial wealth and got sound advice from people who have accomplished this (without winning the lottery) , then use that advice with the same ferocity as scratching tickets. Now they are on to something!

Wow, it has taken some time for me to write this because of thinking back on the many times I didn’t pay the price and got exactly what was deserved. Makes me realize that doing nothing is the same as doing something and the time spent is the same. What a slap in the face that is. Same amount of time spent but 2 entirely different outcomes.

Here are few of my personal examples … Some of these are going to hurt…Just being honest.

Contest: Increase subscriptions on my paper route (12 years old)

• Win Red Sox tickets for top Standard Times producing paperboy
• Gave up a few neighborhood baseball games, worked an extra few hours knocking on doors

Result: Won the tickets (obstructed view..hey, that’s Fenway) and whole box of other goodies

Athletics

• Play sports in college
• After tearing an ACL- worked incredibly hard to get leg back in shape

Result: Able to play both football and baseball at Mass Maritime Academy within 12 months

Construction

• Grow a successful residential carpentry business
• Did nothing but show up to work and do what other carpenters did

Result: Paid the bills, legs finally gave out, and left the business

College

• Get mechanical engineering degree
• Partied, goofed off, and was in denial

Result: Left school 40 credits short of degree and wasted a lot of money

Sales

• Earn over $100,000 a year
• Studied the trade, learned from the successful, and practiced

Result: One of the top earners, $100,000++, on the annual sales trips with top producers

Marriage

• Find a woman of my dreams (that will put up with me)
• Time to listen, compromise, and forgive

Result: Married the lovely and feisty Anne Marie- Going on 14 years- Love her more and more each day.

I got to say, it was a real eye opener writing this….The cool thing is, there is truth in the saying, “There is no such thing as something for nothing” but I would take it one step further and add one thing:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS

SOMETHING YOU DESIRE FOR NOTHING

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