Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending on when and where you're tuning in from.  This is episode 14 of The Blue Collar Executive podcast.  I am your host Lewis Taulbee, Jr.

The great Vince Lombardi once said most people will fail not because of a lack of desire but because of the lack of commitment.  Well I'm committed to do this podcast so let’s go!

It's so important for the success of anything we do in life.  Without it nothing happens.  You cannot conquer anything if you're not committed.  It requires a hundred percent all in.  You're either in or you're out.  There is no maybe or fence straddling.  It doesn't matter if it's your marriage, a weight loss goal, exercise program, or business deal.  You have to fully commit yourself to be successful.  A committed person sticks around when the times get hard.  Anyone can say they are going to do something and even go through the actions but then they jump as soon as challenges arise.  If you're truly committed, you plant yourself like an oak tree in whatever it is you're committed to and say I'm not going to be moved.  When challenges arise your instinct is not to bail, it's to find a solution.  You can be married and in love with your spouse but if you're not committed your marriage is going to fail.  You can go to work for years for a paycheck, but if you're not committed in what you're doing you will never achieve your full potential.  In my early twenties I had an opportunity to interview for my first executive position.  It was 150 miles away from home.  I knew it was a great opportunity but uprooting my family and moving them well it might as well have been 1500 miles away.  It was a huge deal.  My wife had already been in her position with Proctor and Gamble for a few years and we were starting to do pretty good.  However, we knew that the life we wanted required me to have a successful career so she would have the ability to be a stay at home mom.  At that time we just had one child but we knew we wanted more.  While I was very anxious I knew in my heart that this was a great opportunity that God had given me so I needed to push through my anxiety and not allow it to hold me back.  During that 150 mile journey I actually turned around three times.  Three times I would start questioning myself.  What am I doing?  Am I crazy?  I can't uproot everything right now.  I would make a u-turn and start heading toward home.  Then I would begin to think about what we wanted for our future to look like.  So I would wheel back around and start heading back toward it.  Three times I did that.  I am so thankful that I continued to push myself forward and didn't allow myself to go running back to my comfort zone.  Sometimes the hardest thing about getting to where we want to be is leaving where we are.  We don't want to give up what we already have even when we know it's to achieve better.  It is scary.  Too often we stay with what we have because it's comfortable but then we complain that we don't get what we want.  This turned out to be a great step in my career and it wasn't the last move that we had to make.  It never got easier.  In fact it got harder as we had more kids and the kids got older, but in the end it worked out great.  Not only for me, but the whole family.  We have great experiences and lifelong friends from everywhere we lived.  I have no regrets and I'm very thankful for those opportunities but I always had to stay committed to my direction and sometimes even burn my boat so there was no turning back.  The concept of burning boats traces back to one of history's most inspiring leadership stories from 1519.  You may have heard it.  It's one of my favorites for sure.  There was this Island that held the Aztec empire.  It was full of treasures with diamonds and gold and for 600 years armies had come from all over to try to conquer the Aztec people and take these treasures.  The Aztec army must've been pretty powerful because they never succeeded.  There was this Spanish fellow named Hernan Cortes that was determined to do it.  He headed out with 600 Spaniards, 16 horses and 11 boats on a quest to go capture this magnificent treasure.  Now Hernan knew that the most important thing he needed from his men was commitment.  He personally selected each one of them and before they shipped out he spent months telling them over and over how capturing these treasures would make life better for them and their families getting them motivated to ensure they were all in.  While they were out to sea, he started hearing some whimpers.  Some guys were having second thoughts and saying you know life wasn't so bad back home.  Maybe we should just turn around and go back.  They arrived on the opposite side of the Island and set up camp on the shore with plans to attack the following morning.  Hernan gathered his troops and he gave a motivational speech that would have made Vince Lombardi proud.  After everyone went to sleep he called his commanders over and gave them orders to burn the boats.  I imagine his commanders asked why would we burn their boats?  Hernan said no not their boats burn our boats.  They scratched their head a little and said boss those are good boats and we are going to need a ride home.  Hernan said burn the boats because when it's time to go home we're going home on their boats.  They followed orders and burned the boats.  The next morning when they were ready to go into the battle, his army knew there was no turning back.  They either won or they perished.  There was no exit strategy in place to save their lives.  They rallied behind their leader like never before and they succeeded in their conquest of the Aztec empire.  It's human nature to be afraid to move forward without a safety net, but all too often it's that net that holds us back from achieving success.  If we commit and not allow ourselves to have a retreat plan, we push through and persevere to achieve anything we set out to do.  The hardest part about moving forward is leaving where we're comfortable but we can never learn to fly if we don't jump out of the nest every now and then.  It's just like a baby eagle doesn't realize its wonderful gift of being able to soar until mama pushes him off a cliff and it's fly or die.  Whether we face a true crossroad or simply just want to achieve great things in our career or personal lives, or both, we must approach our decisions with the level of commitment that will drive us forward.  Too often we see examples of would be entrepreneurs holding onto their job while trying to set up a business.  This just shows a lack of faith in their own business model.  They need to commit and take that leap of faith.  I've also seen business owners operate different types of businesses with the belief that if one fails, the other will save them.  Now that might make sense in some perspective of holding onto a life preserver, but it really minimizes the likelihood of being successful in any given business.  The same is true in personal relationships.  People fear rejection and undesired outcomes so they float around and never take the necessary risks to have a sustained deep fulfilling relationship.  No matter what it is, there's going to be times in our lives when we need to make a decision on which path to travel.  Once we make that decision, we got to be willing to stick with it and never allow fear and second guessing to derail us.  Instead of focusing on the what ifs, just stay concentrated on the task at hand and every step we need to take to be successful.  Safety nets and escape routes can protect us from pain and injury, but they can also reduce the effort, focus, and commitment that we need to invest in forward progress.  We need to be willing to trust in our hearts, burn our boats behind us and never look back.  Always remember commitment is what you give, not what you do.  People take a job because they want the money not because they want to work.  Remember when Isaac fell in love with Rebecca?  He went to her dad and asked for her hand in marriage.  Her dad said you can marry her but you have to work for me for seven years first.  Isaac did his seven years and at the end Rebecca's dad tricked him into marrying her sister, Leah.  Isaac went back and said I didn't want to marry Leah I wanted to marry Rebecca.  Her dad said okay work for me for another seven years and I'll let you marry Rebecca.  Isaac did that.  You talk about commitment.  Isaac had to work for his father-in-law 14 years and be married to his sister-in-law for seven years to finally be able to marry the love of his life.  If that's not commitment I don't know what is.  Abraham Lincoln once said a commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.  I would hate to get to the end of my road and never know what it was like to commit myself.  Never knowing what I could have been if I'd given my all.  The Bible says that God gave us all a gift and a purpose but it's our decision to use that.  We can always take the easy path but what are we going to miss?  Find your purpose and commit to take that road.  Yes, there may be more potholes on it and there might even be roadblocks but if you're committed you will persevere and achieve great success in whatever you're trying to accomplish.  When I get to the end of my road, I want my wife to say that I was a committed husband.  My children to say that I was a committed dad.  My friends to say that I was a committed friend.  My employer to say that I was a committed employee.  My coworkers to say that I was a committed teammate.  Most importantly for God to pat me on the back and say good job.  You are committed to fulfill the purpose I had for you.  Proverbs 16 says commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.

I'm certainly committed to delivering my thoughts to you in these messages each week.  I never know exactly what I'm going to say.  I just speak from my heart and truly hope you find some value in it or at the very least find it entertaining.  As we close this episode of The Blue Collar Executive podcast, I hope you all commit and achieve great success in all your endeavors.  Thank you so much for listening.