The Education of Millionaires - Michael Ellsberg [108]
I really thought about it. Am I depressed, am I sad, am I angry? I looked into myself. Then I looked at him, and I said, “Dad, I thought you knew me better than this. I’m great! In fact, I’m grateful. I can’t change what happened to me. There’s no point in feeling bad about it. If I feel down on myself, or sad or depressed, that doesn’t change anything, it just makes me miserable.” I told him about the five-minute rule. “It’s been weeks since the accident. I’m way past my five minutes.”
I realized that there was literally zero benefit to focusing my emotion or energy on things that have already happened in the past, so I’m totally focused on how I can turn this into a positive experience, and what I can learn from it.
I told my dad: “I’m already seeing how I can turn this into a positive experience. There are two things I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to write a book. Maybe I could write a book about this someday. And, the last year since I’ve been giving speeches at sales conferences, my dream has been to become a motivational speaker. Well, up until now, I really didn’t have that amazing of a story to tell anyone. You and Mom were pretty good to me, I had a good childhood, I didn’t have any drama to speak about! [Laughing.] But this is something I could share with people. I see it’s my responsibility to overcome this in the best possible way, and have the best possible attitude, so that one day I can teach other people how to do the same thing with their challenges.”
The doctors said Hal would never walk again.
Hal has since recovered fully, has written a book called Taking Life Head On!, and now makes his living traveling as a motivational keynote speaker (http://www.YoPalHal.com), sharing his message—about taking responsibility for your challenges and creating the life of your dreams—with high school and college students around the nation.
None of us would choose to undergo the ordeal Hal underwent, nor would we wish it upon anyone else.
Yet, here’s a remarkable fact about Hal’s story. Hal Elrod probably got more out of a life-threatening accident, which smashed him to bits, than most people get out of their entire formal education.
That’s not to say that car accidents are good things—of course I’m not saying that. May neither you nor I ever be injured like that. But Hal Elrod chose to turn this immensely challenging event into something that ultimately had a profound positive impact on the rest of his life for the better. Thus, by his own volition, he got far more value out of this horrific experience than most people ever do by passively following whatever predetermined path society had laid out for them. The turn of events that occurred around that accident may have been one of the most positive things that ever happened in his life—because he chose to make it so.
We don’t get to choose what happens to us. But we get to choose what it means. And in that choice is a tremendous power. This chapter, the final, longest, and most important chapter in the book, is about that choice: the choice to become the active ingredient in your own life. It’s called “The Entrepreneurial Mind-set”—and you can exercise it whether you’re an entrepreneur, an employee, or still a student.
■ FROM F IN BUSINESS CLASS TO A MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS—HOW TO ESCAPE VICTIMIZATION AND ENTITLEMENT, AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES
In his early twenties, Joe Polish got invited by an old high school buddy to join him on a weekend Jet Ski trip with a multimillionaire self-made entrepreneur. Joe jumped at the opportunity, as he was extremely down-and-out at