Inspiration for Success
About inspiration, motivation and success
So how do successful people deal with where I am standing now, just tired, kind of sick, not really knowing what to do, no real progress, no real friends.
And yes, I did make progress, I learned a bit about determination, persistence contrary to being stubborn, but still, I’m fifty one years old, have great ideas and big plans, more determined than ever, but still no clue how to make it all work.
And yes, I ‘know’ how to do it. But somehow something else is needed. The Secret?
I was (accidentally) watching the movie Gattaca, a movie I have seen quite some times. And it is a movie I like very much, I don’t exactly know why.
And before today I never really saw what I saw today, that the movie is all about determination, the determination to achieve something. And another thing that struck me today was that there were more people knowing what was really going on than I thought. And all those people supported Vincent, even help him when the odds are against him.
So yes, somehow the movie is about the principles of success, and I think many of the principles can be recognized in it.
And yes, certainly watch this movie (again), and learn from it, see how the principles of success are applied, are being used.
And yes, it is all about determination, definite purpose, the determination of one man, Vincent Freeman.
Today I had the second Non Disclosure Agreement in place related to my project Connect Mindanao. And it took me quite some time to prepare and scan the whole thing yesterday, only to find out that the secretary of the company I have the agreement with decided to use the original document and not my scanned version, so I had to scan it again.
And Non Disclosure Agreements are weird things, as when I encountered them, someone, as far as I remember the person I had the agreement with, said something like that they are kind of useless in a legal sense. And I guess that is very true, as of course in the end I will somehow incorporate the knowledge someone is giving me, even under a Non Disclosure Agreement. And of course I may use the stuff that someone would share with me. And of course the other party also would do the same. As of course you can’t ‘forget’ things you know, things you have been told. And of course you wouldn’t write a document or something from scratch if you already have some kind of sample. That’s what I learned with KPMG: there is nothing wrong with good copying. But keep in mind, the emphasis is on the word good, not on the word copying. As I also found that copying stuff, especially reports and proposals and things, is very risky and may not give the result you would expect. As, especially when you want to make something ‘custom’, something I normally prefer to do, it is often easier and faster and more reliable to just start from scratch, just use your knowledge.
So yes, I have Non Disclosure Agreements in place now with some people, some companies. And I don’t have Non Disclosure Agreements in place with other people. And I kind of share the same information. And yes, I also even published the basic idea of my project on the internet, so my idea is not fully secret. And I wrote about it here and talked about it with friend.
But still, I was very happy to have those two Non Disclosure Agreements in place. And I hope I will have some more in the near future. As I learned that things like this somehow make clear to people that you are serious, that you are willing to spend the time and effort to create a document like a Non Disclosure Agreement. And the same is true for other contracts and stuff. As it is very easy to discuss something verbally with someone, just share your ideas, your opinions. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty work, many people don’t seem to be willing to do that, do the work.
So even though my Non Disclosure Agreements wouldn’t make much difference in a legal sense, I am very proud that I made them. And I am very happy that my counter parties also took the time and effort to get them in place. As it means to me that they also want to do the work, that they also take the time (and risk) to put their signature on something like a Non Disclosure Agreement.
So yes, my main project in the past where I was confronted with a lot of legal documents like Non Disclosure Agreements fully failed. And actually I was very angry with the person I made the deal with, as I felt fully left behind somewhere during the project. But again, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.”, as Napoleon Hill once stated, seems to be very true. At least I am starting to believe that. And the strange thing is, that as soon as I try to see the good things in everything that happens to me, I actually use ‘bad things’ to my advantage.
So thank you, Napoleon Hill. And all those other people who I felt let me me down. As somehow I am starting to use everything that happened to me, all my knowledge, all my experience, on my way to success.
I was just working on an Executive Summary for a partial project in my main internet venture for Cagayan de Oro City. And I had postponed that a bit as it just didn’t feel good to work on, although the feedback I got on it only came to me last week.
But that was an important event for me, getting feedback on that document, as it meant that at least someone believes in my project, that at least someone gives me something like the benefit of the doubt, no matter how crazy my idea may sound.
But in the end the idea has become not as crazy as when I first had it, even though The Philippines, Philippine culture may be completely opposite to doing, creating something like what I have in mind. And yes, I am starting to learn what persistence is, real persistence, not just stubbornness. It is just slowly but surely moving towards a goal, just pushing people you need gently, just giving them time to adjust to the idea, especially if it’s a crazy, very big, idea.
And weird, that it seems to be harder to develop a small company like Active Discovery Designs than it is to create a project with a worldwide impact. Or maybe not that weird, as indeed, it may be true that it is crowded at the bottom and not at the top.
So let’s see what happens, let’s see how far I can get. And yes, the strange thing is that I don’t really care about the money anymore, even though the project might bring me some money. I just care about the people in Cagayan de Oro City, in Mindanao, in The Philippines, in the world. I just want to serve them, just give them proper internet at a reasonable price. And I want to give the people in Cagayan de Oro City just a decent life, just jobs, just some money coming in so they can lead the life I was able to live before, a life with good things and holidays, a life with enough to eat and some money to spare to do fun things.
And weird, as this all came from losing everything, being at rock bottom, having no partner, having no money, having no job that brought in money, having no friends, having the feeling to have nothing. And weird it came from a book, or actually multiple books, but in the end the root of everything happening right now lies in Think and Grow Rich. And while writing this I guess this site wouldn’t have been here without that book.
And yes, I am a bit, or actually very much, disappointed with this site. As it didn’t really bring me anything like fame or people reading it or commenting on it and such. Or using my tools, although I did not check the last recently and I also didn’t do any further development on it recently. And yes, I don’t think they are good enough yet.
But yes, the site brought me discipline and persistence. And it learned me to be patient and I learned to plan recently. And as per indication of Napoleon Hill I can indeed confirm that writing things down, whether it is a real planning or just writing a blog, has helped me analyze things, or maybe actually analyze myself, my actions.
So yes, I can still recommend buying the book Think and Grow Rich and working from it, reading it, having it next to your bed as there is indeed an awful lot of knowledge about ‘success‘ in it. And yes, I am quoting the word success right now, as success is indeed something else than having a lot of money or be famous or something like that, the things I was looking for. And yes, I am still looking for that as e.g. I think it makes life easier if you have enough money. But I see more and more that life is indeed some kind of journey, maybe some kind of learning process and success is just something temporary, something that will pass by, something that is in the moment, something you can’t keep or preserve.
So yes, let’s just be happy, happy on our never ending journey called life.
I planned a bit too much today, but I did it again, even though I was distracted by all kinds of little problems with the site of Eigen Horeca Makelaar that has just been upgraded to a system including data entry screens.
And I was thinking a bit about how this all started, how I apparently was able to satisfy the customer in the end, a customer who is not easily satisfied, but who gave me some compliments the last few days which made me feel really good. Or actually I was not really thinking about the start, but of all the effort I did to keep this customer, like trying to satisfy all his needs. And from a business point of view that may not be the wisest thing to do, but just thinking right now, yes, I think I can be very proud that I kept this customer, against all odds, including being far away in The Philippines and never being able to see him and his team.
And it was a difficult road, that felt like I gave too much, as this is a very demanding customer and I often give away too much. And even the last few days were still demanding, as there were more little things that needed to be solved than I expected, even though technically the upgrade of the site was a very large upgrade. And the customer experienced more problems than I expected, but still, right now, yes, I think I can be proud of myself that I pulled this of. And I guess I already gained a lot of respect fixing all kinds of little problems over the last year or so, and with some things the last few days I think I just confirmed that I am worth it, no matter the problems.
So where to go from here? Actually I have no clue, but I hope with this project I confirmed that I can deliver, even though there are still many minor things I would like to be solved, like to be better.
Well, time will tell, and yes, I made a decision to follow the customer, satisfy the customer as best as I can, no matter the cost or the time or whatever it takes. That is and will be my business model from now on, just be the best in custom made web applications. And it the saying is true that you will reap what you sow, then somehow this must come back to me, in the form of positive things. As I did my best, no matter what.