Joe Girard Climbed His Way Back
Tom Hopkins said if you look close enough at high achievers, they are all trying to prove something to someone.
PSP: Who motivated you at the beginning of your career?
TOM HOPKINS: I think I fall right into that category we just talked about – I had something to prove.
PSP: To yourself?
TOM HOPKINS: Both to myself and to my father. He wanted me to be a famous attorney and I only lasted for ninety days in college. When I quit, I came home to tell my father and he was very disappointed and said, “I will always love you even though you’ll never amount to anything.”
Their drive is more than a need for money, or achievement, or accomplishment. They are trying to prove someone wrong.
Joe Girard had to sell to put food on the table. He had lost everything. But when he started to climb his way back, he got knocked down again. Kicked in the teeth. Hard.
It’s like climbing a mountain on a sheer rock face. You are beginning to make progress through superhuman effort — and suddenly another climber pulls out your pitons, sending you falling thousands of feet.
A weird thing happens — after the initial shock of the fall, an eerie calm takes over your body and mind. You realize there is no doubt you will climb the mountain.
Because now you will make it your life’s mission to make it happen — to prove it to them.
And one day, you will be waving from the top.
Or hanging dead on the side.
Because you are not coming back…
