I am an avid reader, mostly inspirational and goal-setting books. Some of my favorite authors are: Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Solomon, David, Brian Tracey, Spencer Johnson and few others…

I consider myself to be a positive, optimistic person. Hey, take a look at my blogs and my Tankism’s that I leave…

I consider myself to be a driven individual. I strive everyday to move forward and make the best of the day. One of my quotes is: “Now! That’s all you’ve got.”

I consider myself a lot of things…QUITTER is definitely not one of them…then 8:59am PST on today, Friday, July 17th, 2009 happened…

As I said earlier, I’m an avid reader. Repetition is the mother of skill so I tend to read some of the same books over and over again. Like a good movie that you haven’t seen in a while, you always find something new in the film to make you remember why you liked the movie and some new wrinkle that you didn’t notice before that helps make the overall story even better to you…

Now, I have taken to downloading books because I’m not always able to read as much as I want so instead of listening to a lot of music, I’m generally listening to a book looking to improve because, after all “Now! That’s all you’ve got.”

I thought I understood what it meant and what you had to do to be a success…then 8:59am PST on today, Friday, July 17th, 2009 happened…

I was at the gym, working legs. Today, I decided to do the “Breath Leg Press.” For those of you that don’t know what that is, you pick a weight that it would be difficult for you to do 25 reps with and you do 50! Then you take some of that weight off and immediately do 25 more reps. Then you take a little more weight off and you do another 25 reps for a total of 100 reps. For me, during that time I lift about 20,000 lbs when you combine the weight and the reps. Hence, you are out of “Breath” and your legs are probably shaking… And, that’s only one exercise!

Well, as I was doing my reps I was listening to “Think and Grow Rich.” In the beginning of the book, Napoleon Hill writes about there being a “secret” contained in the book that, if he were to just point it out to you would rob you of the joy of finding it on your own. He also mentions that when it occurs to you, you should “turn down a glass for it will represent a turning point in your life.”

I thought I had found that “secret” before…years ago when I first picked up the book back in 2005? Then 8:59am PST on today, Friday, July 17th, 2009 happened…

Napoleon writes of a story of a young “colored girl” (that was the language of the day and I take no offense to it for everything that you are against weakens you anyway…) who came to a farmer’s work area and asked him for 50 cents. This was back in the 1920s I believe so 50 cents is like $6,000 in today’s money 🙂

Well, the farmer refused and told her to go away and the little girl replied, “yessa.” But, SHE DID NOT MOVE.

The farmer went along doing his work, not noticing the child had not left. When he did notice that the girl had not left, he got angry and began to yell at the child. He told her to GO! or she would not like the consequences…Again, she replied, “yessa.” But, SHE DID NOT MOVE!

The farmer became enraged and ran over to the girl and the nephew that was in attendance thought for sure the child was about to receive a beating at the hands of his uncle. When the farmer reached the child, the child actually STEPPED FORWARD and yelled, “My mammy’s gotta have that 50 cents!”…

This response stopped the farmer cold in his tracks…then…he reached in his pocket and pulled out the 50 cents and handed it to the girl. She thanked him and went along her way…

People, I have read this story many times… I have listened to it many times… I truly thought I had the meaning of it many times… then 8:59 am PST, today, Friday July 17, 2009 happened… and I will never be the same…

Stay tuned, for in my next blog I will finish telling you what happened…

And, if you want to inspire someone today, invite them to read this blog, subscribe to this blog. I’m all about growth and if you are too, allow me to help you keep going, let’ help each other to KEEP GOING…

Until the next one…

Tank