The Foundation of Your Business
GARY: I was asked to share with you my feelings about business building. I thought starting out I’d just like to set the stage by saying you can be whatever you want to be. It doesn’t matter where you came from. That does not have to equate to what you are today.
This picture is of my father on his horse, and behind him is the little cabin that my sister Nancy and I were raised in until I was age four. Then we moved into a big cabin that was 30 feet by 30 feet. So my beginning was not like those of newer generations. My father came out of World War II and never changed; he never got past the warrior depressions. Even with this thinking and his way of life, he was the hardest working man I ever met.
What I’d like you to just think about is when you look at your past or you look at your ancestors and the connections that they provide, it’s like building a skyscraper. Your heritage is the foundation; it’s not the building.
Many of us look at our ancestors and what they’ve taught us and the belief systems they passed on to us as that has to be our building. That is absolutely a false belief. You want to look at those beliefs and values as the foundation, the platform, but you can change the structure as it goes up to become whatever you want it to be. You pick the decor, you pick the design, you pick the colors, you choose whether it’s wood, cement, or brick. You are building your life, building your future, and building for success. All of that is up to the architect and the engineer, and that architect and engineer is YOU. You are in charge of that life.
