One Man’s Trash

Independence Day is this week in the United States.  It’s a time when we celebrate freedom to live the lives we want, which certainly includes the ability to pursue our dreams.  July 4^th is also a special day for my family.  My dad was born on the 4^th, and this year he celebrates his 70^th birthday.  In his honor, I’ve decided to share one of his favorite weekly stories with you, which happens to be one of my favorites too…

Harry stood out from the other kids.  He had more street smarts than book smarts, but perhaps that’s what growing up poor produces.  Harry’s grandfather was in the garbage removal business and many people looked down on him for it.  Even Harry’s own father didn’t want anything to do with it.  Harry was different.  He liked everything about big trucks, and he didn’t mind getting dirty.

Very few people aspire to become garbage men, and so Harry tried college first.  To help pay for school, he pumped gas at a local station and drove a dump truck part time.  But he soon decided that he wasn’t cut out for college.  At the beginning of his sophomore year, Harry decided to drop out.  He joined the Army, but after a few years, he still felt lost.  It was time for him to pursue his passion, no matter what others thought about him.

At the age of 25, Harry began working in garbage removal in South Florida, a region that was experiencing significant growth.  Harry had recently gotten married and didn’t have much money left, but he saw an opportunity, and wanted to go into business for himself.  He approached the owner of the garbage company and asked if he could buy just one garbage truck and a small collection route.  The owner agreed to sell him one of the oldest trucks in the fleet and a route in a lower income part of town.  Harry was able to borrow $5,000 from his father-in-law to make the deal, and, suddenly, he had become his own boss.

One of his high school friends saw Harry driving the garbage truck, and thought that he must’ve hit rock bottom.  Harry would drive the truck from 2:30 in the morning until noon picking up garbage.  Then he spent the afternoons knocking on doors trying to get new customers to sign up for his route.  His hard work paid off.  Little by little, he would add customers until there were enough to buy another used truck and hire another driver.  Within a few years, Harry had accumulated over 40 trucks, and merged his business with another garbage removal company in Chicago.

Then he had an even bigger idea.  He decided to buy smaller garbage companies all over the United States and join them into one big company.  Over the span of twelve years, he acquired over 150 garbage companies, and by the time he was 37, Harry Wayne Huizenga (pronounced High-zinga) was a multi-millionaire.  His company, Waste Management, Inc., was the largest garbage removal business on the planet, and its stock was being traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

A dozen years later, Wayne (he prefers to be called by his middle name) ventured into a new business but used the same strategy.  He bought a small video rental chain for $7 million, then began acquiring hundreds of mom and pop video stores.  In less than 10 years, Wayne owned over 3,700 stores and his company, Blockbuster Video, was valued at over $4 billion.  Blockbuster was the second company Wayne took to the New York Stock Exchange, and he later sold Blockbuster for over $8 billion.

When I met Wayne, he told me about his latest venture, the first national chain of car dealerships that he’d named AutoNation.  He eventually grew AutoNation to 370 stores, and it became the first car dealership to go public on the New York Stock Exchange.  Wayne also has the distinction of having owned three professional sports teams:  football’s Miami Dolphins, baseball’s Florida Marlins, and hockey’s Florida Panthers.  A friend of ours joked that Wayne did pretty well for himself, especially for a garbage man.

They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and there was never a truer example than Wayne’s story of turning actual trash into a fortune.  How often do we let outside opinions get in the way of our dreams?  It’s time to embrace the 100% Accountable mindset and stop getting bogged down by other people’s ideas of what you can or should do.  Clear away the refuse, find what you love, and pursue it with everything you’ve got.

Until next week…

Live Your Dreams

It’s All Greek to Me

This week, I’m traveling through the beautiful country of Greece with my family and some close friends.  We are visiting Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini, and I am enjoying seeing historic sites and learning more about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  I’m also becoming more worldly – for instance, I’ve learned that Greek yogurt is simply called yogurt over here.

The following is a story I came across about a Greek fisherman that I found especially worthwhile and timely for anyone in heated pursuit of their dreams. I hope you enjoy it…

An American business executive was on holiday in a small coastal village in Greece.  As he strolled the docks and took in the seaside beauty, he noticed a local Greek fisherman with a particularly sizeable quantity of fish. 

“That’s quite a catch,” he told the man, genuinely impressed.  “How long did it take you to get all those fish?”

“Not very long,” answered the fisherman, “perhaps an hour or two.”

This puzzled the executive.  “Really?  Then why didn’t you stay out longer to catch more?”

The fisherman shrugged, then answered that his catch was perfectly sufficient to meet the needs of himself and his family.

“But, then what do you do with the rest of your time?” the executive asked.

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a nap with my wife,” the fisherman answered.  “In the evenings, I go to the village to see my friends, dance a little, play the pan flute, and sing songs.  I have a full life.”

“Well, I have an MBA from Harvard, and I’m sure I can help you,” the executive replied. “And I’ll be happy to give you some free business advice that can definitely change your life.  You should start by fishing longer every day.  This way, you’ll catch extra fish that you can sell. Just think about it.  If you double the number of hours you fish, you can catch twice as much in a day.  With the additional money you’ll make from selling the extra fish, you’ll be able to buy a bigger boat.  A bigger boat will let you bring on a crew and fish deeper waters, which will earn you even more money as you continue to catch more fish.

With that additional money you’ll earn, you can buy a second boat, and then repeat that till you can buy a third boat, and so on until you have an entire fleet of fishing trawlers.  Also, instead of selling your fish to a middleman at the market, you’ll be able to start negotiating directly with processing plants.  At some point, maybe you’ll even open your own plant, so you can do your own processing and keep even more money.  You’ll be able to ship fish to markets all over the world.  And eventually, you can move to New York City to direct your vast fishing enterprise from the greatest business city on earth.”

“How long do you think all that would that take?” asked the fisherman.

“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years from start to finish,” the executive answered.

“And after I achieve all of that, then what?”

“When your business gets really big, you begin offering stock.  You’ll make millions!”

“Millions?  Really?  That’s a lot of money. I can’t even imagine what I would do with it.”

“Well, you’ll be able to retire, live in a small village near the coast, sleep late, play with your grandchildren, catch a few fish, take a nap with your wife, and spend your evenings singing, dancing, and playing the pan flute with your friends…”  The executive stopped, realizing what he had just said.  The fisherman smiled. 

“Hmm.  Well, anyway, that’s quite a catch you have there,” the executive finished.  “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Thank you,” the fisherman answered.  “I certainly will.”

Now obviously, this isn’t a story about why you shouldn’t work hard.  It’s simply a reminder that we all need to consider some simple questions about what we do or hope to do with our lives.  Many people focus too much time on what they do for a living instead of on why they do it.  Once you understand the why, then you can organize your life so you don’t have to wait until you retire to truly enjoy what you love.  Start by pursuing what you love, and soon enough, you’ll be loving what you do!

As for me… I’m going back to the beach. 

Until Next Week,

Live Your Dreams!

Music for the Soul

When Stephen and Craig sat down to discuss the murky history of their favorite American musician, a man known simply as Rodriguez, they had no clue as to his birthplace, upbringing, or what had become of him.  He was virtually unknown in the USA, and  according to some rumors was already dead.  Nevertheless, they felt someone should research his past.  After all, in their native South Africa, he was one of the most famous musicians of all time.

During apartheid, censorship in South Africa had resulted in the banning of music with subversive messages.  Even so, the anti-establishment music of Rodriguez, an American singer/songwriter, made its way into the county’s consciousness, and inspired its people to stand up against their tyrannical, ultra-conservative government. 

For decades, Rodriguez’ popularity was an accepted fact, even though almost nothing was known to anyone in the country about his life or death.  Finally, when Stephen and Craig began investigating the mystery, this is the story they discovered…

Rodriguez was born in Detroit, and grew up in a single-parent, working-class household.  His immigrant father exposed his son to music at a young age, playing emotional Mexican folk songs after long days of work.  The songs moved the young boy to tears, and inspired him to learn to play guitar.

By the age of 16, Rodriguez had dropped out of school, and was performing his own music in bars and seedy clubs around the city.  Eventually, he met a man who wanted to sign him to a 60-year recording contract.  He made the deal, confident he would outlive it, and he was right.  After releasing his first single, the small label went out of business.

Echoing his city’s racial tensions and economic frustrations, Rodriguez wrote politically-charged songs that brought the hard streets of Detroit to life.  He often performed with his back to the audience to force them to focus on his lyrics.  At such a show, two local musicians saw him play and were captivated.  With their help, he soon had another record deal, and recorded a folk-rock album that captured his take on the challenges of life.

Music critics loved the album, but it didn’t catch on with radio stations or the general public.  Despite that commercial failure, the label gave Rodriguez another chance.  Armed with something to prove, Rodriguez delivered his second album, another sharp musical rant about the ills of society.  Unfortunately, its sales were also disappointing.  Two weeks before Christmas, Rodriguez was dropped from his contract.

Now 29, Rodriguez had two daughters and was broke.  Putting aside music, he settled into a life of hard labor, working various construction jobs and living modestly in a derelict house he purchased in a government auction for fifty dollars.  Little did he know that, halfway around the world, he was being hailed as a musical genius.

Almost 28 years after the release of the first Rodriguez album, Craig created a website announcing his search for any information about the mysterious singer.  But the last thing he ever expected was to find that Rodriguez was actually alive!

Unbeknownst to Rodriguez, copies of both his albums had made it to South Africa when they were first released.  But there, unlike in the USA, people loved them. They loved his music so much that, for many South Africans, it was the soundtrack of their lives.  With censorship spawning the pressing of thousands of bootleg copies, more than half a million of Rodriguez’ albums had been sold there.  In spite of never seeing any success at home, he was more popular in South Africa than Elvis Presley or The Beatles.

Sixto Rodriguez will be 72 years old this July, and he’s experiencing a career renaissance.  After learning of his South African popularity, he made numerous trips there to perform for tens of thousands of people, dwarfing any show he ever played in Detroit.  Then, last year, a documentary about Rodriguez and his late-in-life popularity on the other side of the world won the Academy Award.  That film, Searching for Sugar Man, generated an explosion of new interest in the musician’s work in the USA as well.  Finally, his albums are selling in his home country, and he’s playing in front of thousands of Americans every year.

Rodriguez plays music not for the money, but for the pure joy he feels in pursuing his passion.  He connects with people because of his honesty and authenticity.  This story reminds me that dreams have no expiration date, and the path to a well-lived life begins with following your inner song.  Find what makes you unique, then share it with the world!

Until Next Week,

Live Your Dreams!