For a moment, I’d like you to imagine that you are in a deep dark tropical jungle and you are completely lost. You are not quite sure which way is North, South, East or West. You can’t see the sun because the tree canopy above is so thick, which also means that you can’t see any of the mountains that you have been trying to find.

Suddenly, in the distance you hear a small group of friendly voices and the sounds of machetes chopping through the thick undergrowth. Like any smart adventurer you head towards the sounds of those voices, hoping that they will be able to point you in the right direction or let you join them.

Unfortunately, as you don’t have a machete it is slow going for you get to where those voices were and by the time you get there, they are gone. The only trace of them is the path they have carved out through the jungle with their machetes. What do you do?

Yes, this is like a choose-your-own-adventure book. Do you follow the path they have blazed in the apparent direction they are moving? Do you sit down on the path and hope for someone to come along and find you? Or do you go back into the jungle and find your own way?

Obviously, the easiest way to find your way out is to follow the cleared path. But why is it that so many of us on a daily basis jump right back into the jungle and try and find our own way?

Sometimes, we follow the path for a little while and then we try and find our own way or a short cut? We might think that following the path is not only hard work, it can be boring, so we decide that we are going to set up camp just off of the path and get comfortable in the jungle.

The reality is that the jungle isn’t that comfortable for long periods of time, and when we try and take a short cut we usually have to spend a huge amount of time just trying to find the path back because the short cut was a dead end or was too dangerous.

The path I’m referring to is the “path of success”.  The point is, there are millions who have gone before us, blazing trails in order to make our lives easier.  No matter what mountain you are moving towards, someone has been there before and they have probably written a book detailing the path that you will want to follow.

The good news is that you can change that path as much as you want. You can make the path wider so that more people can follow you in an easier manner. Sometimes the path you are walking hasn’t been tread upon for centuries and the signs are tough to read, but you are there to swing away with your machete and clean the path up.

I’m encouraging you to get to know the top producers in your industry, in your business, and in your office. Get specific questions to ask those people about what they are doing and what they are not doing. Not one of the consistent top producers is there because of luck. Some of them may say they were in the right place at the right time, but that is a very nice way of saying that they worked there tail off with blood sweat and tears and when opportunity knocked they earned the right to accept the opportunity.

As professionals I know that you are buying books and attending seminars, but are you finishing the books you bought, are you re-reading them and highlighting the points that most apply to you? When you attend a seminar do you review your notes, do you follow up with the skills that you learned?

It is time to get serious about taking your business and your life to the next level and the only way to do that is to decide which path you would like to follow.

Be Free!

Tom Weber

President