05.19.08
Tall Trees Catch the Wind
The voice-over of a wonderful new television advertisement for the new Cadillac goes something like this: “Some say the nail that stands up gets hammered down - BE THE HAMMER.” (It is better to be a hammer than an anvil. - St. Dominic.) At the Joint Venture Bootcamp I presented in Vancouver BC to eighty-five people on Saturday, one of the Delegates told me at a break, “The more successful we get, the more our friends and family attack us.” Thankfully, this Delegate has joined the DollarMakers Club, where he and his wife will find the support they so richly deserve.
When you are not experiencing failures, frustration, and the attacks of those who have a vested in the status quo and the dumbing down of the herd, you are not making progress. When you are not hated, discredited, renounced and undermined by the losers of the world, you’re idling, and entropy has set in. Kites fly higher against the wind.
The sheeple will always attack that which challenges their addiction to compromise and mediocrity. That’s no news. But what is scary is that the prostitutes and pimps that call themselves politicians will support the persecution of free thinkers and those who would beckon the unwashed masses to higher ground. As the world sinks deeper into concession, statism, collectivism, and denial, those with the courage and integrity to speak out and the intellect to support their premises are losing their freedom of speech. This is disturbing. Leaders of freedom like Mark Steyn are being actively, systematically, and viciously attacked. Christopher Hitchens is a lone voice in the wilderness, one of the great intellectuals of our time, an Ayn Rand in his own right, who still manages to share his liberating wisdom without being closed down. The moronic masses have fortunately not yet ceased to be justifiably intimidated by those with a superior intellect.
When you’re being admonished to lower your standards, dilute your dreams, and stop rocking the proverbial boat, you’re in good company. When you’re accused of being too expensive (Rolex), too extreme (Richard Dawkins), too thinly spread (Richard Branson), too old (Winston Churchill), too radical (Ayn Rand), too different (Colonel Saunders of KFC), too aggressive (General Patton), or too small (the Google start-up), scrape that “advice” off the bottom of your shoe and move forward with greater gusto.
When your team becomes an anchor, replace the team. When your supporters become your detractors, find new supporters. You only really need one friend and supporter, and that is YOURSELF. If it’s lonely at the top, it makes sense to be your own best friend. Don’t be tempted to roll over because it’s the easy way out; embrace the pain and conflict which are the essential seeds of great success: be the hammer. Be encouraged. Look to your heroes and mentors. Stay the course.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
