Motivation is what causes us to take action. What motivates you is different from anyone else, though there are some commonalities. You can’t make someone learn. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. And if the student isn’t ready, well, the teacher may hit a brick wall.

This applies to you, too. Sometimes the reward is so enticing you’ll do anything to get it. Bring on the feather. Sometimes the pain gets so great you will do anything to make it stop. Be grateful for the brick…

The day my boat sank was one of the saddest days of my life. You see we are not talking about just any boat, we’re talking about a Mastercraft Prostar 190, my first real honest to Goodness Ski boat. And to make matters worse the news came from my 16 year old son. “Hey Dad, I’m up here at the Marina, did you know your boat sank.” I almost screamed as I said. “What are you doing at the Marina?” He told me the boat was turned sideways only held up by the dock ropes that hadn’t broken yet. I had a sinking feeling myself because I knew it had to be my fault.

I conducted a seminar before my largest crowd ever at the International Liquid Waste Haulers convention. More than 800 people attended. As always, when I asked for a show of hands asking how many people knew what it costs them to do business per productive hour or per gallon of waste hauled, almost nobody raised their hands.

It’s an all too sad and all too familiar story. As a result, their industry, like ours, sells its services short. Many of their members charge between $60-75 to dispose of 1,000 gallons of yuck. In most cases they need to charge three to four times more to earn a decent living for their families and be able to operate in a professional manner. Instead, just like our industry, they slave away for 70-80 hours a week trying to make ends meet.

In this country, in these times, we have access to everything we need to be healthy, wealthy and wise. So…what’s getting in the way?

Maybe you are.

The stumbling blocks on the road to success are of your own creation. I’ve listed the most common ones below. Recognize any of them?