STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE AND MAKE IT BE!

Most of us know Bill Cosby from his award winning TV show the Cosby Show where he played Dr. Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable. Some of remember him when he was a standup comedian and produced a series of records (as in vinyl records) about growing up talking about his parents, brothers, and don’t forget his group of friends including FAT ALBERT!

I saw another side of Bill Cosby last week, I saw Bill Cosby the MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER. Using his hallmarked humor and his unbridled wisdom, he did a 45 minute speech which brought the audience to their feet several times.

He said a lot of great things and I wrote down a full page of his ideas. The one that I want to share today is, “Stop talking about what you should be and make it be”!

Before I go any further, what do you think are the key words in this statement? I will give you a hint, there are 2 of them. If you said “you” and “it” you would be absolutely wrong! (Bill would be laughing at this) The 2 key words are “Talking” and Make”!

So many of us talk about what should be, or could have been, or should have been, or might have been. These people spend their lives looking backwards at opportunities they either missed, or never had. Some of these people try and place blame for the lost opportunities on everything around them. Others say that the opportunities never came at all.

Then there is another group of talkers who keep talking about what they would be if only… as with the others, the “if only” is never if only they had worked harder or done more for themselves.

The people who MAKE IT BE are the people who don’t have time to place blame. They know that when they point one finger at someone there are always 3 fingers pointing back at them. These people may have chased opportunity after opportunity and not caught one yet, but they know they will as long as they keep moving and trying to MAKE IT BE!

The amazing part is, it has been said in so many ways in the past. The most famous one being the 10 most important 2 letter words in the world. IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME

We make things happen for ourselves. We keep our eyes open for opportunity, we practice and prepare for our chance, we work hard knowing that it will pay off in the end, we help others with the knowledge that we are paying forward for our success through the success of others.

Get uP (strong emphasis on the “P” in UP) is the way Bill Cosby said it last week. Get uP and start moving towards something. I once hired a young man who was about as down as I had ever seen anyone in my life. As I got to know him he told me that he was trying to run away from his past failures. When he told me this I asked him how that plan was working. He said it wasn’t. He told me that he has been failing at everything he had been trying and moving from one failure to another. I asked him if he wanted the cycle to break. I asked him if he was ready to try something new. I had to laugh when he answered I am trying something new, I have never been in outside sales before. I then said I wasn’t talking about a new type of job, I was talking about a new plan for success.

I explained to him that you can’t run from failure, it will follow you wherever you go, but instead of running from failure he needed to start running towards success. I told him it is the same distance, the road is just as bumpy and you will get just as lost and tired, but in the end instead of looking back to see if you had outrun failure, you will look forward and see how much closer you are to success.

He worked for me almost the entire 15 years I had my company and became my best manager. He made money, got married, had a beautiful family and is still running everyday towards bigger and better things.

He stopped talking about what should be, and made it be.

As Bill Cosby’s best friend Fat Albert says, Hey Hey Hey, Make it be!

Lorin