Posts Tagged ‘Determination’

Sometimes Bad Things Happen While Chasing Your Dreams

Posted on July 2nd, 2012 by Kimanzi

I had the awesome privilege this weekend to chase my dreams by speaking at a conference in Reno, Nevada. I was told by several in the audience that it went well despite some upsetting circumstances.

I flew U.S. Airways from Milwaukee to Reno, with a layover in Phoenix. When I entered the plane to Reno from Phoenix they told me I had to express check my bag because the flight was packed. I have done this several times before so I thought this was no big deal. There were also 50 people behind me so I didn’t have time to properly react.

When I got to Reno I waited by the door where they usually bring the bags that are express checked, right away I got nervous when they told me the bag was in baggage claim.

I went down to baggage claim, waited for all the bags and sure enough my bag didn’t come out. I was nervous, upset and scared; all I took out of the bag was my ID and my debit card (praise the Lord for that move).

Still in my bag were all my clothes, especially the ones I was going to wear to speak. My laptop was in there which had the Power Point for my presentation. My wallet was in there with $80.00 in cash and my Passport and all my documents.

Hind sight being 20/20 I should have grabbed the wallet and passport but such is life. The only person at U.S. Airways with any competence was the woman in baggage claim, she went over and beyond to help me, thank you ………….. (more…)

If You Don’t Believe It, Why Would Anybody Else?

Posted on June 1st, 2012 by Kimanzi

Last August was when I finally took action on my dream and self-published my first eBook. I thought all I had to do was write it and put it out to the world and people would buy it, whoops!

As the days went on without a single sale I got more and more crushed, I felt like a totally failure. During this time I would go to my day job and people would ask about the book and I would just put my head down.

As I would go to new places and talk to people they would ask me what I did, I wanted to say I was an author but I had no sales, right? So I would tell them about my bread business, I was accepting defeat.

It wasn’t until I went to the Brendon Burchard conference and I had an experience on the subway in New York that it finally became clear. I had heard Jeff Goins say it several times but I guess I didn’t believe it: (more…)

An Everyday Working Man Chasing His Dreams: William Haeflinger

Posted on May 28th, 2012 by Kimanzi

Note from Kimanzi: If you have taken action on your dreams and would like to share your story with the world, email me at kimanzi@talesofwork.com

Will and Chaka

When I met William Haeflinger about seven years ago he was a busy man. In addition to having a wife and two kids, he was working three jobs to pay the bills! We met through a mutual friend shortly after I started my bread service. I needed to hire someone and my friend couldn’t say anything but good things about Will, so I gave him a call.

He was hesitant about being self-employed but eventually decided to come on board. During my ten years of having this bread business I’ve gone through a few people, Will has been there and done a good job from day one! When it came time for me to move onto working for one guy, he took over the business and made it his own.

 

As I’ve written about before, our group has always talked about getting out (more…)

The Honeymoon Stage of Your Dreams

Posted on May 14th, 2012 by Kimanzi

I remember the first moment I saw my wife, my heart literally skipped a beat. I was 17 years old and she was 19, we met while both of us were working at Burger King.

It didn’t start out too well though, she was transferred to the restaurant I worked at and had been working at for years, she came as a manager and I wasn’t. I had been working there for a little while so the store manager gave me some freedom and a little authority, both of which she didn’t think I deserved. It didn’t take long for us to butt heads and she tried to fire me, luckily for me the store manager really liked and respected my work ethic, so I kept my job!

It was crazy how we started out and ended up together, after she tried to fire me we were married 8 months later! If you’re married or even if you have dated, you know all about the honeymoon phase, it didn’t matter what happened, your love would get you through. We had a few rocky times at the beginning of our marriage but our love got us through.

Remembering that joy

Even though I didn’t sell very many books when my first book came out, I would tell anyone who listened that I was an author. I walked around on cloud nine and when I had my business cards made, I couldn’t sleep I was so excited. People would tell me I had a pipe dream but I didn’t listen, my love for my dream got me through. (more…)

The Power of Being Focused

Posted on May 9th, 2012 by Kimanzi

I’ve had my CDL for the last twelve years, I got it when I worked for Pepsi Cola. During my time at Pepsi I would have to say I was an OK driver, there were a few minor incidents:

This is the kind of truck I drove

We had pumps for diesel in the yard, one morning I was filling the truck up and listening to music. I got a little too wrapped up in the music because I pulled away from the pumps but forget to take the pump out of the diesel tank of the truck, let’s just say there was a little mess.

One afternoon after delivering to a grocery store I drove away and decided to multi-task by also texting. I was reading a message when I pulled out right in front of someone, they slammed right into the side of the truck. It was a side bay truck, so there were parts of car bumper and cans of Mountain Dew everywhere.

One afternoon I had some time to kill before I was allowed back into the warehouse, luckily for me my parents lived five minutes from the warehouse. So I drove the truck to their house, I had to back the truck close to the curb. As I was backing up I heard someone down the street yell (not at me) but I looked, before I knew it I was backing the truck into their car. I think my parents were wondering if 18 was too old to spank.

You’re smart so I’m sure you notice a theme in all these stories: even when it was just a few seconds, the accidents happened when I lost focus. Whether you’re chasing your dreams, working at a job or operating a business, you can’t afford to lose focus.

You have to be honest about your focus

Sometimes we tell ourselves we’re completely focused on a goal or task when the truth is we’re not truly committed. For example: you want to open your dream business this year, that’s you’re main focus this year. However, you’re always going out to eat, you spend money buying the newest iPhone instead of saving or investing that money into your dream business. Are you really focused on your goal? (more…)

A Must Have In Chasing Your Dreams: Determination

Posted on May 4th, 2012 by Kimanzi

You can see my friend

While in New York a few weeks ago, my friend and I wanted to visit Ground Zero and see the memorial, with the conference letting out at 10 p.m. it had to be a late night trip. First, we had to figure out which subway line to take to get there, it really doesn’t take long to get to anywhere in New York once you figure out the right lines.

We got some help and where on our way, by the time we figured things out and got there it was 11 p.m. The thing that everyone we asked failed to mention was that the memorial is only open when the financial districts are open (as you know it’s in the middle of wall Street), from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

I was ready to snap a couple of pictures of what we could and go back to the hotel but my friend was determined, in his words: “we didn’t come all this way to give up now”. We could see the new building they’re putting by the site and the whole area is blocked off for construction, my friend looked and saw a Hilton hotel overlooking the memorial, so he proposed we get in the hotel, take the elevator to a high floor and take pictures from a lobby window.

We took the elevator to the 33rd floor got out and ran into rooms, you had to be inside a room to see a view of the memorial, again I was ready to quit. He found another hidden stairway and we took it a few floors up and found another elevator, we took that to the 55th floor. When we got out we knew we were out-of-place, the whole floor was marble and really nice, when we looked at the rooms they said this on the door: “Mayor’s Suite and Governor’s suite and President’s suite” we quickly realized we were completely out-of-place (it was good we weren’t tackled by security). It was pointless still because the view from the site was still inside the rooms and we weren’t going to knock on any doors. (more…)