Monday, January 26, 2009

**BOOK GIVE-AWAY**

Simply register to follow this blog and your email will automatically be entered into our drawing. At the end of January one lucky winner will receive a signed copy of Joel’s latest book, Sense and Significance: A Dreamer’s Perspective. A brief summary may be found at www.joelbryant1.com

DESIRE

The crisis is nicest when it passes. Until then courage must keep.

Desire only works if we do. Even then, however, we must be committed, more so in fact than desire can tell. That's why it teases routinely. It does so to inspire commitment until we are convicted if we settle for anything less, which so many seem to do. Success for these is found in keys that themselves are seldom found. Winners meanwhile develop courage until they are bolstered from within. Once they are, they go farther even than they imagine, provided what they want is worth having. That's something only courage, not college, can teach!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

TRUE GREATNESS

Perfection is the proper arrangement of matter.

All the late night wishes and midnight curses won't make success come any faster. You can mourn your fate and mimic the famous but in the end it still doesn't matter, because success is nothing but suffering. If you want to experience uncommon success, you must endure extraordinary suffering.

Everyone doesn't but you do. Otherwise you would have succeeded already. Review your history; doesn't it prove it? Isn't it filled with unlikely defeat? If it were anyone else, he would've won. (That's what you said). But not you, your luck in fact routinely fails.

So what, keep going! You had to see now what you didn't then. Success is nothing but suffering. It's not about indulging your fantasies or delighting your friends. True success means being a servant. Otherwise it's just a visa into vanity and creative vice. We have enough of these successes.

A new standard is needed. Therefore a new student was instructed. You are that person. Have you ever considered such? Have you ever wondered why it's taken you so long to achieve so little? It wasn't bad luck that beleagured but the need to know the truth. Success means being a servant. Now that you know this your passion will prosper.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

COLLAPSING COURAGE

Today hides what tomorrow heals when we persist.

Some people collapse when they can't connect their parts. Perplexed, they don't believe that next will bring the change they need. So, they fold before what would flourish if they endured. Destiny gives this eulogy daily, unfortunately.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

NO HELP

Those who would help must not be heaped with too much ease.

People praise courage but won't support it. They'll nod their heads and nudge you on but won't give a dollar to support your dream. Those who do often have only a dollar to give. But those with the goods sit and grin, seeing if you'll fold before favor falls. This, unfortunately, is the antagonism of greatness. It must endure the scorner's scoff and the dreamer's doubt before flourishing.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

EXPOSED

Only the exposed can expound the excellence of greatness.

Exposure is crucial to success. Some people never succeed because of being sheltered. Often, average isn't the result of inadequate talent or even timidity. On the contrary, all of us are talented and most of us are determined. But many of us lack goals definite and endearing, the kind that self-compel. So we read carelesly and wander casually, doing little to enlarge our lives. Hence, no goals. We have no great thing to do.

By the time we do find something compelling to accomplish indifference devours. Thus, we muse but aren't mandated. We can do without it because we haven't been done adequately from within. Yet success requires exposure, and exposure requires involvement. True exposure means seething, soaking in the object to understand its quality. Otherwise we will live and die discretely, though having lived isn't enough. Life demands a commitment to excellence, moral or otherwise. Only mutants shun mastery.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE

Experience teaches but truth changes.

What will it take for you to succeed? That's what we must answer before seeking aid. If we don't know, how will others? Often, however, it's hard to tell. Until then we lie and attribute our limp to lack, which money can mend. This may be true for some but not for most. Usually what we need is the wisdom of experience, which is something that money alone can't buy. Once we gain enough of this we are better able to identify our needs. Ironically, it may be money. Unlike before, however, we know for sure. Still, most people lack wisdom and experience. These think that one loan will revolutionize their lives. It will, briefly.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

CRISIS

Courage is never given except in crisis. Otherwise it's unnecessary.

People admire courage but despise crisis. They want to be accomplished but hate to be challenged. Most of them don't understand the law of opposites. So, they think that courage and acclaim are coincidental. But those with both understand their essence. They also grasp the importance of paradox. Thus while the whimsical wonder what it's like to win, these lose until they win. They aren't broken by defeats or conquered by crowns, but realize that both are fleeting. They also understand that loss isn't lessened by regret. Nor is victory sweeter by being overblown. From without, however, the imagination always embellishes.

Friday, January 9, 2009

FRICTION

Desire dwells beyond defeat.

Friction tests our commitment; frustration confirms it. Otherwise we would be indifferent at best and in denial when worst erupts because only those who care are caught. The rest are casual and thus abandon what they envisioned. Even so, success requires that we be willing to endure friction and manage frustration, before and after we achieve. Of course, things seem harder when we're climbing. But that's only because we haven't climbed far enough. Once we do frustrations accrue but do not discourage as before. We have to get here to understand this though. Until then, friction discourages and frustration overwhelms.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

OUR DREAMS

We pursue until we possess or become discouraged and change our minds.

Why do we wait so long to pursue our dreams? What makes us indefinite procrastinators? How can we spend years looking and days debating before embarking? Are the times that contrary or are we too cautious? Why must we be fed up before venturing out?

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

CONVICTIONS

Slogans cannot replace convictions.

We can seldom follow paths that contradict our convictions and still succeed. We can try but we will eventually tire of compromise because greatness demands authenticity, and authenticity demands confrontation. Else, we will live from appearance and for approval. But if cells split, it's also natural for paths to divide. Thus, time will eventually dissolve artificial bonds, freeing us to follow our course.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

**NEW BLOG: A DREAMER'S DIARY**

This blog is dedicated to the disgruntled dreamer inside all of us. Thus it chronicles my evolution (and anguish), as I sought to pursue my dream of becoming a writer after I left my job with Dun & Bradstreet. Each post will portray some element of its difficulty, beginning with my disgruntlement and the subsequent decision and consequences. More than that, my goal is to comfort and accompany you as you strive to accomplish your own evolution. Yes, the economy's terrible and things are tight. But something about dreams refuses to wait. So, if you're ready for the journey, here's my journal to guide you along.

THE ANATOMY OF GREATNESS (IV)

Some go for it; others yearn for it, yet both hunger.

Anything may not be possible, but more things are possible than we imagine if only we will imagine them fully and seek them daily. For instance, I was unemployed in the early 90's. So, instead of seeking work I decided to create it for myself, which is what real dreamers do daily. My background was in telephone sales, more commonly called, cursed perhaps, as telemarketing. I decided to use this experience to help Greensboro car dealers sell more cars.


After spending a week at the library creating sales literature, I searched the phone book for prospects. My approach was empirical and sophisticated. I used their name as the nexus. If it nudged, I called it. My plan was to take their old customer files --five years or older-- and invite them to test drive the latest model of their previous purchase. We would give them a cheap gift and lavish praise for their opinion. The idea being that dissatisfaction would settle the instant they sat.


Two weeks later I had my first appointment with Bob Dunn Ford. Since I didn't have a car myself, at least one that ran, I borrowed a friend's. After an hour of talking with Mr. Dunn, I left his office with a $3000 check with another $3000 due 90 days later. (I didn't even have an account to deposit the money). Looking back, it seems crazy because he never requested references, identification or anything else substantiating. Maybe my enthusiasm sufficed. Or maybe he was as desperate for change as I was.


Whatever the reason it worked. I also hired two ladies from my church to do the calling, convincing him to pay them from his payroll, which he gladly did. He also provided office space. Meanwhile I busied myself with securing another contract, going by weekly to check on them and to meet with him. I drove a different car each time because I had to use whose ever was available. I'm sure his staff thought I had money. That's how they looked whenever I entered the lot.


Yet I was just spending the social capital I had accrued. Things would have soared if it weren't for Desert Storm, which started shortly after the project. Still, at the end of 90 days Mr. Dunn was pleased with our results though uninterested in renewing our agreement. In fact he furnished a remarkable letter of reference that I used in pursuing other projects. I didn't get one but I did get through what would have been an even tougher time otherwise.

FORTITUDE

Fortitude is faith with a goal.

If I would have "thought through" my decision to leave work, I would have never made it. If I had counted the cost, I would have never made the purchase and honored my passion. If I would have let fear frighten and need drive, I would still be drowning. But the office became too offensive for me to endure; so I left without regretting the decision. Others may have but I haven't.

Monday, January 5, 2009

IMAGINING COURAGE

Success requires that we be bold in duty and heedless of dinner,
Enamored by the dream's promise and splendor.

The courage to change is always available. We may be stripped but we aren't as stuck as we imagine. Something within remains immune to the trial. By this, we can twist circumstances until they relent (or we reconsider). For example, we can stop rehearsing the inevitable. We can also work without the sense of feeling feeble, which often defeats. Characteristically, no circumstance consumes completely. Something within remains invulnerable --the imagination usually. By this, we can envision alternatives, relieving circumstances accordingly. It's even better when we pursue possibilities.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

POSTPARTUM PERSPECTIVES

We go too soon when we fail to bloom, no matter our age.

The problem with most self-help books is that their perspectives are postpartum. Authors are typically relating their experiences after they have achieved their dreams or escaped their conditions. Metaphorically they man the summit beckoning to those at the base, boasting occasionally and minimizing egregiously the demands of greatness in their attempts to instruct. Absent is the acknowledgment of anguish that comforts climbers and deceives those who think that success is simply a matter of mixing secret formulas. By omitting this element readers are robbed of the consolation so essential to sustain their efforts, especially when dreams delay and dreads devour.

Few dreamers have the presence of mind and prescience of thought to craft a story in all of its strains as it unfolds. Books that do are typically written by authors who "go undercover" to encounter realities foreign to their own. Though revealing, they lack emotional integrity because their authors enjoy the psychological cushion of knowing that they are merely role-playing. Others issue principles that betray greatness in all of its grisliness. Consumers of these books are embroiled in principles, all of which matter. But anyone who has sought greatness knows that these alone fail. In fact the truly great knows that emotional maturity crowns. Moreover unless our hope is audacious our efforts will be defeated.

Most books depict what only the individual can deliver --the courage to be. It matters not how they are written if we aren't insatiably smitten to achieve. We must be able to endure anguish until we vanquish our fears. Doing so will require us to ask questions, some of which resemble cauldrons until our hearts are clear and our motives are revealed. Only then can we overcome the thickets and brambles that entangle. Only then do we maintain our integrity by acknowledging the perplexities of greatness. Yet these do not diminish the need to navigate nimbly and endure deliberately the inevitable.

We must be able also to manage the meantime, which is where we exist until our dreams manifest. In refusing we forfeit the emotional depth and philosophical regard necessary when all reasons for enduring have died. Biblically speaking, we must learn to "hope against hope." In doing so, we can use our environment creatively, being comforted accordingly. We also learn to honor the rotation of greatness, which none can avoid no matter how hungry. Thus, while others course-correct we character develop and hasten success. In believing contrarily, ability is over-rated and passion abated prematurely. Authors that assert otherwise incite the insanity that makes serial buyers commit the serious blunder of imagining that reading one more book will uncrook their path.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

THE ANATOMY OF GREATNESS (III)

If it were destiny you would feel it.

I'm afraid to die without completing my purpose. I haven't always known what it is but I do know what it isn't, thanks to my heart. It heralds when I'm doing the right thing. Rarely, however, has it approved. Typically, it accepts but doesn't sanction my work. It lets me labor temporarily but tells me when I'm to move on. To others I appear unstable, my father especially. He used to scold me, but now just shakes his head. What he doesn't realize, however, is how hard I've tried to "be stable." He doesn't know how many nights I've wrestled trying to reform. God knows I want to be stable but my heart won't let me. That's what my father doesn't understand. It's also what I've come to accept. Father may know best but my heart knows better. At least I hope so.

Friday, January 2, 2009

THE IMPOSSIBLE

Limits deceive when timid describes.

People reject the impossible until it appears. That's what I perceived after reading about Apple executive Steven Jobs. Many find him incredible. Though he quit college because he couldn't afford the tuition, he still audited random classes, surviving off free food and public baths. Now he's a billionaire icon whose ipod enamors. Yet had he gone to their door seeking bread he would have been badgered for "wasting his life."

Thursday, January 1, 2009

NEW YAWNS

Time is a gift but no guarantee that things will change.

The new year begins and yawns help beguile those who have yet to arise. It happens every year this time. Thus 2008 will repeat in 2009 for most people because real resolution is constitutional, and makes us with regard. All the calendar does is mark our growth, drawing us ever close to our ideal.