David & the Gold Medal GOLIATH!

This is an old post I found in my drafts box that somehow never made it to the blog.  It was originally dated Jan.10, 2010.  I have since ended up as the demo-dummy on a couple other occasions, one of which I will dedicate another post to another day.  

Wednesday night I wrestled Rulon Gardner. Chest to chest, shoulder to shoulder, forehead to forehead, sweaty shirt to sweaty shirt, groping for writst control. Okay, so really I was the biggest guy on the mat next to Rulon who's got to be 400+ pounds, and he just rag dolled me as his demo-dummy, but still, I wrestled Rulon Gardner.

I'll never forget his Gold Medal win against Aleksandr Karelin at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. "Karelin broke his grip..." Rulon's huge smile and the biggest cartwheel in Olympic history are as vivid in my mind's eye as the day they were first planted there. 

The lesson of the day was "drop your ass"  to find your power.  In the last move of the day I ended up pressed into the cage with Rulon's shoulder in the middle of my chest and his stubbly head grinding into my chin (the position he had achieved by dropping his ass).  Once grounded in place and with all his weight on my sternum he commanded, "Now move!"  I more or less flailed and tried to refill my lungs with air each time I was lucky enough to get him to shift his weight.

Such a remarkable thing to be on the receiving end of that kind of power.  His strength and speed, despite his girth is other-worldly.  

"Writing will take you from where you are to anyplace you want to go..." Jeffrey Gitomer, The Little Red Book on Selling

Just finished listening to Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling while driving around for my Opera By Children visits.  He's a brilliant and fun author and authority on selling.  In a sort of inspired-to-continue-even-though-the-book-is-over afterward he somewhat randomly flows into a discussion of the importance of writing.  If nothing else, he was inspired for me.  The following are exceprts:

If someone were to ask me for one thing I could pinpoint to my success, without a nanosecond of thought I would answer writing...

Success is a low level word when I describe what the discipline of writing has done for my career, my success, my fulfilment and my legacy...

If you only choose to believe one thing that I tell you, believe that writing will take you from where you are to any place you want to go...

I wish there was a way that I could explain the power of the written word. The only thing I can say is to reinforce my earlier statement that every piece of my business good fortune for the past fifteen years has in some way or another come from my writing.

For more on Jeffrey Gitomer, go to  www.gitomer.com.