When the cherry Blossoms Fall

Spring is a wonderful time in Japan. The cold of winter fades away, green shoots of new grass poke up through the soil, and the days gradually warm. Cherry trees, leafless all winter, sprout buds on the ends of their branches that bulge, then blast forth in a riot of red and white cherry blossoms.

This is a time of high anticipation, of new life and new energy, color filling in for the dreary gray of winter. Freshness fills the air.

We all experience cherry blossom time. It's that wonderful day when you first show up for work at a new job, the day you announce the opening of your business, your wedding day, all days of anticipation when everything you do seems right.

Then the blossoms fade and morph into cherries, tasty and juicy, that sit on the tree in their dark glory, soaking up the sun and maturing, quietly and strongly. The anticipation has worn off and the hard work has begun, the work of making food for the cherry pits that will one day fall to the ground and wait their turn to become new cherry trees.

We all also experience cherry time. Our jobs and businesses grow and mature. We become comfortable with our duties, which become almost routine. It's not as exciting, it's the time of getting the work done.

Then the cherries fall from the trees. Some are picked and go into jam, cherry baskets, pies, and ice cream sodas. Some simply fall to the ground, where they rot, releasing the cherry pit and feeding it until it can take root in the soil and grow into a bigger tree.

This is the time when everything changes and everyone goes their separate ways. It's the day when businesses grow and businesses stagnate. It's the time of uncertainty when seeming failure can suddenly turn to triumph.

Every blossom's time must end; every cherry must fall from the tree. Which will you be: the cherry that makes pie, sits on the soda, makes jam and then vanishes? Or will you be the one that takes a risk, winds up on the ground rotting, and hangs in there to create something new and far better than ever existed before.

It's your choice, the easy road to nowhere or the rocky road to success.

The Education of Johnnie Peel

It was an ordinary day. Then most days were ordinary for Johnnie Peel. On most of those ordinary days, he dreamed about having some not so ordinary days. But that always seemed to be a project for tomorrow so those days stayed in his dreams.

He worked at an ordinary job, in a cube at a large corporation. His job was to pay bills, not just any bills, only those with the letters R, S, and T beginning their names. At first he'd gotten a lot of companies starting with The ---, until management wised up and distributed them by the second word. After that there weren't so many companies with those starting letters.

Johnnie paid his bills and he did a great job of it. He got awards for excellence at writing checks and he'd done it so many times he really was good at it.

And driving home each evening he sometimes thought about that book he wanted to write some day. He didn't have a title and he hadn't thought much about the theme and he wasn't sure what he wanted to say to the world. But that wouldn't matter. The dream was what was important.

By the time he got home, he'd left his dream on the freeway and was ready to deal with the realities of home, family and kids. The dream would have to wait. After the kids went to bed there was television, more bills to pay, personal this time, wife to deal with, his time just wasn't his own.

But that dream continued to ache in the back of his mind. It would jump out at the oddest times, when nothing had happened to provoke it. When things got better, when he had more time, he told himself. Then we'll do the dream.

One day he got a phone call from his friend Paul. "There's a great seminar I want to take you to next week. And don't tell me you can't go!"

Johnnie said, "I can't go. The kids, you know. They need me."

Paul said, "I'll pick you up Thursday at 6 p.m. Be ready." He hung up.

So Johnnie was ready at 6 p.m. Thursday. Damn seminar, he thought. Can't be much. He didn't want to go but he was committed.

He didn't say much as Paul drove him to the meeting room. The sat down among about 50 other people. He just listened.

On the way home, Paul asked, "What did you think?"

Johnnie was silent for a long time. "I've had this dream. Never even talked about it. Someday ... I want to write a book. Before you talk, yes, I don't know how, or what or anything, it's just a stupid dream and that's why I never told anyone."

"You did tell me," Paul said. "Two years ago. Tell me what you learned at the seminar."

Johnnie said, "There was a time when I might have written my book. But time gets away, the kids, the wife, all take time. I don't have any."

"Stephen King got up at 5 a.m. to write, every day and then went to work. He didn't have much time either," Paul said.

"Yeah, I know. It's just an excuse, lame one at that. The speaker hit it right, there is no tomorrow. If I don't start now, I'll never do it. Ever." Johnnie paused a few seconds. "I've been lying to myself. Paul, I learned more in that two hours than in the previous 40 years."

Paul said, "Join me at my writing group next week. Might not be the right fit but you'll get a feel for how it's done."

Johnnie's first instinct was to say, "No, I'll wait." He swallowed the words with a sigh. "Okay, I'll go. I just don't know how much good it will do."

"It's the first step," Paul said. "And that's the hardest one of all to take."

The Night Before the Big Event

By Lee Pound

Tomorrow, Friday, February 11 is the first day of my big event, Go For the Gold, in Newport Beach, California.

My business partner, Arvee Robinson, and I have tied down all the speakers, filled the room, completed the hotel contract, and checked out the room setup.

This is the sixth time we’ve done this, six big events in the last five years, and each time it feels the same. All the work leading up to the event is over. Days spent writing sales letters, emails, and promotional copy, talking to speakers, dealing with attendees, are all over. The hotel room is set up and ready to go. It seems like there should be more to do but there isn’t.

That night before the event, the calm before the storm, is an eerie time. When you look at the empty room, knowing that the next day it will be filled with people eager to learn, there is a strange quiet that includes the satisfaction that you’ve done all you can do to make it a success.

Now the event team takes over, the speakers take to the stage, the attendees, each with his or her agenda and needs, arrive. The event takes on a life and energy of its own, different from that which created it.

Go For the Gold, a mere glimmer in our imaginations a year ago, opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. We’ll be on stage for three days, during which lives will change, partnerships will be formed, and friendships will be born.

Arvee and I are just the catalysts. We’ve created the opportunities. It’s up to the attendees to take advantage of them. And many will.

So here we are the night before. The work is done. Let the fun begin!