Recalibrate Warriors

Entrepreneurs

In today’s Recalibrate Warrior segment I want to reach out to all you would-be entrepreneurs who are holed up in a cubicle somewhere, stuck in a job going nowhere. Or, maybe you’ve lost your job and wrestling with whether to go back into the work force as simply an employee, or maybe… just maybe… go out on your own and do what you have always wanted to do; be what you truly believe you are capable of. But you’re scared. Afraid that you might fail. Fearful of what people might think about you for taking such a chance – your friends, people at church, your family, maybe even your spouse. “Play it safe. Don’t do it. Are you crazy? What if you fail?” That mantra plays over and over in your head.

In my first book – Money For Life – I wrote about a sermon that my pastor, David Callies, delivered one Sunday. He told a story about a child who was sitting at his grandfather’s feet, both of them enjoying the tranquility of the moment together next to a warm, crackling fire. Then the grandfather asked the boy,“Son, what do you plan to do when you get into high school?”

The boy replied, “Oh, I’ll probably play football, maybe get a car and try to graduate.”

The grandfather continued, “And then what?”

“Well, then I’ll probably go on to college and maybe go into engineering like my dad.”

 Again, the grandfather replied, “And then what?”“Well, I guess I’ll graduate and get a job.”

The grandfather then asked, “Will you marry?”

“Oh, probably” the boy replied. “I think I’ll have three kids of my own.”

Then the grandfather continued, “And then what?”

“Well, then I’ll help them go to college, and get their own families.”

 “And then what”, the grandfather asked.

“Well, I guess then I’ll retire”, the boy said somewhat slowly.

Then with emphasis the grandfather said, “And then what?”

After some silence, the boy responded, “Well, then… then I guess I’ll die”.

What the boy was describing was a life existence. I think what the grandfather was trying to intellectually stimulate in the boy was a consciousness of having a life experience. God did not create us to simply exist; to play it safe until we die. No! he created us for adventure and all the ups and downs that goes with that.

Let me end by giving you a profound contrast in life existence versus experience with two very different quotes. Each of us is free to choose either one as our guide in life. Which will it be for you?

The first one is… Some people want to tiptoe through life so that they can arrive at death… safely”.

The next is from Teddy Roosevelt.

In the battle of life, it is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better. The credit belongs to the person 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, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Which is it… for you?