“100% of the shots that you don’t take, don’t go in.” Wayne Gretzky
Back in 2002, I was at a conference where they announced that Entrepreneur Press was putting together a book called Masters of Success. They were looking for a variety of stories some of which would be about people overcoming obstacles. I thought about my speech problems and how I’d overcome them and I thought “I am going to submit my story.”
I sat down to write my story and then the little doubt demons showed up: Who am I to write this story? Who cares about my story? What if they don’t like my story? What if they don’t choose my story? (And that’s the short list!)
Three months later, I still hadn’t written my story. On a Monday morning, I received an e-mail announcing that that coming Friday was the cut-off for submissions. Again, I heard the voice of doubt: “What if they say no?”
Then, I heard the voice of unflinching reason: “They might say no. But they sure can’t say yes unless you have the courage to try.” I sat down, wrote the story and e-mailed it off. Within a few hours, I received the notification that I was included in the book. I decided then that maybe I couldn’t make others say yes to my dreams and aspirations, but I didn’t have to be the one to say no to them.
