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My Teacher Called Me a Moron!
But I made $293,000.00 last year.
Sorry Teach!
It was a painful
time for Sam. To be called a moron is hard enough for a teenager
but to be called a moron by one of your teachers is even harder. Then to have it done in front of a classroom full of your peers,
is nothing short of devastating. Be honest, how would you feel?
By his own admission
Sam Franks was not the sharpest tool in the shed back in high
school. He wasn’t particularly good at any subject. Math didn’t
come easy, English was worse, Geometry was ridiculous. All in
all you could say that high school was one painful experience
for Sam. With his grades, college was not even a consideration. You might guess, that things are different now however. Very
different!
What made the
difference was finding that thing that Sam truly wanted to do. And while formal academics was a struggle for him, common sense
seemed to run a high course with this young man. As part of high
school Sam took some Vo-Tech classes. He didn’t particularly
want to be a welder or plumber in his professional life, but
since he didn’t excel at history class, his counselor sent him
to Vo-Tech. He did enjoy the more relaxed attitude of Vo-Tech
and the hands on training was much more pleasant than the more
structured book work in high school.
While at the Vo-Tech
he had something of an epiphany. He realized that it really
didn’t matter what you were trained to do as a profession, you
could probably find work within your own field of enjoyment.
Combining work and his favorite pleasure would make for a really
nice job.
Here is specifically
what Sam came to realize. He loved fishing. He loved almost
everything about fishing. He loved the boats, the motors, the
life on the lake. He loved to eat fish and he loved to catch
fish. Problem was he was being trained as an electrician at the
Vo-Tech. Sam came to the realization that there are parts of the
fishing industry that need electricians. Sure enough, he was
right.
His first job was at
a beautiful marina on a lake in Missouri. It didn’t take him
long to let the owner’s of the marina know that his talents
extended far beyond wires. He turned out to be a fine overall
handyman. Soon he was maintenance foreman. He absolutely adored
working at a marina, talking to fishing experts all day long and
helping people with their maintenance problems. And all the
while he spent every possible minute on the lake with a fishing
pole in his hand. Not hard to do when you live and work within
twenty yards of your favorite past time. Talk about one happy
camper! Sam found his passion. Not in his skilled profession,
but rather with what his skill was able to provide for him,
other than an income.
What is your
passion? What is your favorite thing to do? Can you think of how
you can combine the skills and talents you have now and use them
to get into doing the thing you love the most? Are you a CPA who
loves to fly and adores airplanes? Then how about working for a
Fixed Based Operator or an aircraft manufacturer. Or better yet,
specialize on doing accounting for people who own and use
aircraft all the time. Are you a plumber who loves the outdoors
and camping. There are tons of suppliers, parks, RV Parks and
campgrounds who would love to talk to you.
Do you love to talk,
visit and network with people both in person and on the
internet? If you are, have you found a way to make money at what
you do the best? Then check out some of the opportunities that
are available in networking.
One of the real
advantages of living in today’s complex world is that
opportunities abound. There is no reason that each and everyone of us should not be doing what we truly want to do. Economic
times have little to do with your success. You make your own
success. Or put another way:
"I have lived a long
time and even in the worst of times, I have seen people make a
fortune. Even in the best of times I have seen people screw it
up and go broke." - Zig Ziglar
The end of Sam’s
story is that today he owns the marina and as you read in the
headline of this article, he is making more money than his
teachers could ever dream about. Why a teacher would call a
child a moron is beyond this writer, but I can safely say that
the last laugh is Sam’s. |
