November 21, 2003
Big changes in staff. Had two salespeople resign yesterday. They wanted to rep us from an outside position but we declined. This puts tremendous pressure on our current staff, two of whom are inexperienced. However, I have faith in them and Mike and I have faith that they’ll all rise to the challenge.

Had a meeting with them this morning and told them the story of a young punkster who got drunk every night and whored around even more. Yes, my bible school teacher Mrs. Blanchard . . .no, of course it’s me and I was in my early twenties and completely lost. In spite of my decadent lifestyle, I really wanted to accomplish things but I had no idea on how to do it.

One night a friend of mine invited me to a Sta-Power meeting, which was an early pyramid scheme company like Amway but without the ethics. Of course I didn’t know this at the time. First, they put us in this room and they wowed us with a tent show revival type “experiment” to show how Sta-Power oil additive works like “magic.” We were being set up to buy franchises at $3,000 a pop, as I remember. I was too dumb and too young and from Kingman to boot (call it a tri-fecta of stupidity) to understand the con and the only reason I got out of there with my shirt is because that’s all I owned. My friend was not so lucky and got taken for several thousand.

However, in spite of the total con situation, the total negativity and bad intent of the perpetrators, in the middle of the meeting they showed us a film. It was a motivational speech by an old man that I had never heard of—Earl Nightingale. He talked about goals and how people lose their way (this got my attention) and then he told about a sea captain who is leaving a dock in England on his way to Australia and who would bet against him making it? And how it’s a forty day trip and yet for 39 days he can’t see his goal, but he knows if he gets up each day and stays on course, on the 40th day his goal will come in sight. This may sound corny to you, but for me it was, well, a sea change.

After the meeting (at True West) Sue H. went on the web and found Earlnightingale.com and we ordered the tapes and one of his books. I hope the staff is half as motivated by Earl as I was because if they are we will have no trouble meeting our goals.

”I don't tell the truth any more to those who can't make use of it. I tell it mostly to myself, because it always changes me.”
—Anais Nin