119 – April 29
“Everybody is creative and everybody is talented. I just don’t think everybody is disciplined. That’s a rare commodity.”—Al Hirschfeld
A friend of mine once met Al Hirschfeld for lunch and had a wonderful visit with him. He remembers that at precisely one o’clock, Hirschfeld looked at his watch, and excused himself to go back to work. His discipline supported him to become a successful, famous artist.
What is the structure and discipline that supports your work? I always tell people that the workshop business is a very simple business supported by three basic activities:
- I network and speak in order to meet lots of people = Marketing the service
- I follow up with the people I met = Selling the service
- I teach the workshop = Providing the service
These are the ships that I send out. If my activities each week consist mainly of these three items, I know I will be successful and each workshop will be full. Everything else I do is basically support “administrivia.” But I can’t allow myself to get lost in the paperwork shuffle. Paperwork is just an avoidance technique.
Focus on the activities that bring you the money. Find your structure and the discipline to work it. For me, “The money is in the phone”—where is your money?
Today’s Affirmation:
“Easily and effortlessly, my discipline supports my success!”
It’s really a bummer for me when administrivia bogs me down. The worst thing of all is when machinery I depend on breaks down and requires repairs and maintenance.
One day, I got in my car to go to an appointment, and it was dead as a doornail. Nothing. So I borrowed my roommate’s pretty red Jag, and drove off to Pacific Palisades. Gorgeous sunny California picture postcard day! Made a deposit at the bank, got back in the Jag…and it wouldn’t start!
Now what is the likelihood of our two cars going kaput on the same day?? I call that bad car-ma!
Okay, so I went into the bank to tell them I had to leave my car in their 15-minute spot while I had my appointment and would be back to call the Auto Club in an hour. They were lovely and wished me luck.
Denise Edwards at Lilese Salon refurbished my nails and painted them gold with sparkles just like I like them. When I was done, I walked back to the bank, called the triple A, and waited for the truck.
Ricky showed up, a stocky Latino full of good cheer, and started up the Jag, after first shaking his head and saying, “Don’t buy this car. Too many problems.” He made me laugh.
I asked him if he could follow me down Sunset Boulevard to my house in Brentwood where I had another car that needed a jump start. You should have seen the incredulous look on his face as I explained that. But he said it was out of his area, so I just said, “Okay, I’ll put in another call when I get home.”
I called triple A, they said, “Didn’t you just call?” and I said, “Yes, I did…” and explained the situation.
Guess who showed up? Yep. Ricky.
He grinned at me sheepishly and checked out the car. He said, “I found the problem.”
“What?” I asked.
“The driver,” he said.
“Uh, oh,” I said, “what did I do?”
Turns out if you leave the trunk open, there are lights in there, and the battery gets drained. Duh.
So while my car battery was being charged, Ricky and I had a great conversation about the pursuit of money vs the pursuit of happiness. He told me of a friend who worked so hard for 12 years he never saw his family. Ricky thought that was crazy. He saw my books in the trunk of my car, so I gave him a copy of “The Wealthy Spirit” which he insisted I autograph for him. It was my pleasure.
Turned out to be a great day!
