“Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she beings with some wild expectations.” – Ralph Charell, author

I guess a “four-minute mile” would be considered a wild expectation (see previous post). Of course, I think planning to land a man on the moon in under a decade when you are already behind in the newly formed “space race” was also a pretty wild expectation. And yet, before the decade ended there stood Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Pretty wild, huh?

I really suggest you read “Moon Shot” by Deke Slayton and Alan Shephard. This book tells of the astronauts involvement in the space program and all of the monumental effort involved in getting to the moon. After you read it, you will never look at the moon in the night sky in quite the same way again.

In my work, I am sometimes faced with people who have some pretty wild expectations. Sometimes they even have some foundation in reality; and sometimes they don’t! Sometimes people just think I can wave my magical mouse and conjure up a solution to their problem. I am very fortunate, in that sometimes I can. This is usually because their problem isn’t nearly as large or complicated as they believe it to be.

The real challenge comes when people come to me with wild expectations that require work – a lot of work. More specifically, a lot of work on their part – not just on my part. Its amazing how many projects I can get out of simply because there is no magical solution to the immediate problem.

Every once in a great while I am faced with someone who not only has a challenging problem, but is enthused about it. They are sure they can accomplish their goal and their enthusiasm is contagious. In those rare cases, my work becomes pure joy. A challenging project plus people passionate about achieving their wild expectations equals fun.

For what its worth, the “fun” is rarely there without there first being some sort of wild expectation.

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright



Do you know what happened in May of 1954? For the first time in the history of mankind someone ran a mile in under four minutes. Until that time it had never been accomplished. Part of the reason is because it was believed to be impossible.

“Experts” believed it couldn’t be done. Articles in medical journals explained that your heart would explode if you were actually able to run a four minute mile. Fortunately, no one really needed to worry about their heart exploding because it was physically to run a mile in under four minutes.

That all changed in May of 1954 when Roger Bannister ran a mile in three minutes and fifty-nine and four-tenths seconds. First of all Roger Bannister’s heart didn’t explode. In fact, it kept right on going until he died in the late nineteen seventies.

What’s really interesting is that since that time, there have been almost one thousand documented instances of people running a mile in less than four minutes. In the last fifty years there have been almost one thousand people who have done “the impossible.”

You see what really changed in May of 1954 was not the physical capability of the human body to run one mile in less than four minutes. What changed was the belief that it was possible. It was a psychological, not a physical, limitation. One of my favorite parts of this story is often overlooked – all of the “experts” who said it couldn’t be done were dead wrong. Yet another shining example of why you should avoid “experts” and their opinions!

What is the point of all of this? This makes me wonder how many “4 minute mile” type barriers we have in our own lives (minds)?

If you stop to think about it, I’ll bet you can think of something that you would really like to do, or to have, but aren’t working for it because (like the 4-minute mile) its “impossible.”

I’m willing to bet that everyone has something in their life they would really like to do, or accomplish, or experience. I’m also willing to bet that everyone of those people have items on that list that they will never attempt because it’s impossible.

My response? “Says Who?” You must first believe that it is possible, and then it will be possible. Of course, you will probably have to add large quantities and long hours of preparation and, hard-work. You may have to use some rather “unconventional” means to accomplish your goal. Roger Bannister practiced, trained, and made many, many unsuccessful attempts before breaking the four-minute mile barrier. It wasn’t easy, and accomplishing the feat took a long time.

For what its worth, What is it you “believe” is impossible. Is it really? Says who?

"Let a person rejoice when he is confronted with obstacles, for it means that he has reached the end of some particular line of indifference or folly, and is now called upon to summon up all his energy and intelligence in order to extricate himself, and to find a better way; that the powers within him are crying out for greater freedom, for enlarged exercise and scope." -- James Allen

Courtesy of Santa Claus, we have a new puppy. This puppy is smart (yes I know all dog owners believe their dog is smart). We put up a baby gate to keep the puppy in the kitchen while everyone was gone. We came home to find the puppy on the other side of the gate! The next time we left the house we tried putting a cart in front of the gate. Again, we came home to find the puppy on the wrong side of the gate!

As an experiment we put the gate up while we were home and then waited. We watched as the dog climbed over the gate! He backed away from the gate, took a running start and then climbed over the gate!

Now that is pretty amazing, because this dog has done what many people do not. He overcame an obstacle. I say this because in the past year I have heard many people talk about their problems (obstacles). In almost every one of those conversations, each obstacle was perceived as a reason to quit, to give up and not go on. I became aware of this when reading an interview of a successful entrepreneur. This person was called a “serial-entrepreneur” because he hadn’t just started one company, he had started several. In fact, at the time of the interview he was starting his eighth company. He sold six of those companies for a combined total of millions of dollars.

It took me until about the third paragraph to decide that I liked this guy! One of the things he said really struck me. He said that most people quit when they reach the first real, major obstacle. He said that in almost all of his businesses, getting past that first major obstacle was usually the first step towards the success of that business. He also stated that the first major obstacle is where most people quit.

This guy starts a business, then starts looking forward to all the obstacles that he meets. He thinks its fun. Interestingly enough, he is one of the few people who has no problem financing a new company. Banks look at his track record of successes and are willing to lend him money – they want to be a part of his next success.

Since reading that article, I started noticing that most people do use obstacles as a reason to quit. Of course, there was this student who received a low ‘C’ on his project for a new business opportunity. It only received a low ‘C’ because of the amount of work he had put in to the assignment. Now that poor student owns FedEx. That poor guy is worth millions because he didn’t quit when he met his first obstacle a ‘C-’.

For what its worth, Zig Ziglar says we don’t pay the price for success, we pay the price the price for failure. I think he’s right. The price of failure is being trapped in the kitchen or giving up an idea for a business that has revolutionized how the world does business. The price of success is having a nickname of “Houdini” and making millions of dollars.

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Anthony Robbins

In several of my computer classes I teach my students about something called an IF statement. Sometimes referred to as an If-Then-Else statement or function. It is really a pretty simple function to understand. If some condition is met, Then a certain action will take place; otherwise (Else) a different action will occur. I always enjoy watching my students realize how widespread the use of this function. Once they really understand it, they begin to see how powerful it is and how it can be used in so many different situations.

You see this statement or function is really a decision step. It tells the computer to make a decision. That decision tells the computer how to act (or more appropriately react). This simple decision if this is true then to one thing, or else do another thing is amazingly powerful. There is hardly a computer program written that does not utilize this incredibly powerful statement.

My point in sharing this is to prove that Mr. Robins is correct. Decisions are important. Every decision you make changes your life. No matter how small or insignificant a decision might seem, it changes your life.

The important thing to remember is that this is true about every decision. There are no decisions that don’t count. Every decision to cheat on your diet counts – whether you want it to or not!

If you really stop to think about how drastically every decision changes our lives it’s simply amazing. For example, when I was in college I decided to attend a meeting for new students. It was there that I met another new student and we became friends. Seven years later, he was the best man at my wedding. Looking back, I don’t remember anything of the advice I was given about being a new student on campus, but I still think going to that meeting was a very good decision.

Of course there was the time I decided to go to a friend’s party – where I met a young woman. For what its worth, that was a very good decision.