Classification: Fiction, Inspirational, Human Potential
In Chapter 2: Fate vs. Freewill, I told a story. It was a story of breaking through a barrier.
Two weeks earlier, I had been in our local store, very limited in funds, forced to choose between soda or chips and salsa, which was a simple but favorite snack of mine. They were meant to go together. I only had money for one or the other. I can remember seeing so many other snack items I wanted, too.
Just two weeks later, with several thousand dollars in my pocket, I walked into the very same store and something strange happened that I really didn’t even notice until after it was over. Walking down aisle after aisle this time I could have anything I wanted. I walked every aisle in the store and could find absolutely nothing I desired. I left the store without buying anything. I found that very interesting and I, personally gained so much insight from that moment.
Beyond that world where we struggle with insecurity and want, is a world so much bigger. But as long as I was locked in that place, limited by my own poor beliefs about myself and world, I could not see it.
My new found success was fun and exciting.
It would be difficult to accurately describe that period. We were sharing an educational program that taught people how they could have absolutely anything and everything they wanted in life. We were making more money in a month than we often made in a year. So if you can imagine knowledge that teaches you that anything is possible and then circumstances where people are accomplishing what seemed impossible, then you can begin to imagine the culture we created.
When you used the word “try,” for example, it clearly showed that you either had a bad habit of speaking, or you didn’t understand what “try” means. As Yoda said, “there is no try, only do.”
Only the uninformed “tried.” We only considered that there is what you think about and what you believe. What you decide to do.
About two months into this new experience, I thought about where I might live. I always liked Alki Beach in West Seattle, so I went looking for a place to live, and found a room for rent right on the water. I thought it would be nice to be by the ocean.
I moved in with just a futon, a few personal items, my telephone, and my fax machine. I spent the afternoons and evenings talking with people about the educational program or giving presentations on the conference calls.
It was around this time that technology was evolving quickly. I had heard that I could connect six people together on the same telephone with high quality audio. Long distance was still about 15 cents a minute and the people I worked with were all over the US. I ignored the cost and decided to call five of my clients who had bought the educational program and connect them all together; including me, that was six.
I introduced them to one another, and they began talking. There was not room after that for me to get a word in, so I put the phone on speaker, muted it, and laid back on my futon.
One of my teachers had told me that there are no bad days. “There are only good days and better days.” He would pause and then follow that with, “and once in a great while, there are even perfect days.”
From time to time, I would “try” to picture what a perfect day would be like.
As I lay there on my futon, listening on speakerphone, these clients took turns talking about how their life had changed so quickly as a result of the educational program I had shared with them. They talked about relationships, finances and health… one after the other. After a while, I wasn’t really listening to the details. I was just laying there relaxing. It was then that something happened.
I recognized a feeling inside of me that I had known only on rare occasions. The feeling was growing stronger and stronger. It’s difficult to describe, but I’ll do my best.
Imagine that you show up to a dinner and there are 500 people arranged at tables. As you walk across the room, everyone is smiling at you. Someone grabs your hand, and says, “Come with me.”
They lead you to the front of the room, and everyone applauds. You don’t know why. The man who escorted you to the front of the room says, “I am pleased to introduce you to Vance Williams.”
Everyone stands and applauds, cheering, and you feel amazing, but you don’t know what you did.
In that little apartment, laying there on the futon, that’s exactly how I felt, and I didn’t know why. The great feeling became euphoria. Still, I didn’t know why.
I remember hearing a scientist talk one time on the television. I think it was the man who discovered black holes in the universe. I don’t remember much about black holes, but I do remember him saying he felt wonderful for a while and didn’t know why. Then some time later, he had the idea of the black hole. His explanation was that perhaps he had worked it out on a subconscious level, felt wonderful about it, and then later became conscious of the idea.
My eyes and ears returned to the telephone. They were still talking. “Is it because I helped these people?”
In my mind, I heard, “that’s part of it.”
“Well what is it? What have I done?”
There was a question that came to mind: “what did you set out to do in your life?”
For several minutes, I thought about making money, working to better myself, and I eventually saw that I didn’t know what I set out to do in my life.
But just following that moment when I thought, “I don’t know,” something else happened.
And in that moment, when I would have never imagined that the feeling could get better, I had an epiphany that brought tears to my eyes. I was 27 years old.
At 15, I was a boy on a farm, no electricity, no indoor plumbing… we used an outhouse for a bathroom. We often walked 4 miles to catch a bus to school. What was that boy going to do in his life? What had he hoped to do?
My failures flashed before me. They meant so little. I can’t tell you how I knew, but I became keenly aware that I had done something extraordinary. I had exceeded the greatest expectations I had for myself in life.
It no longer mattered what I had set out to do. Whatever it was, I had exceeded it. Sure I wanted to be successful and be freed from economic slavery. I even imagined sometimes that I might somehow make a difference in the world, though I had no idea how I would do that. And again, I can’t tell you how I knew, but I knew that what I had done in these two months had achieved more than I had ever set out to do in my life.
I interrupted and told the little group on the phone that they could keep on talking as long as they liked – that I was going to go for a walk.
I left the room and their voices faded as I headed out the front door.
It was nightfall, and there was a full moon. I looked out over the water. The colors were so much richer. Everything seemed more alive. I felt like I was gliding, given that feeling that was still with me. All was right with the world.
I thought about the experience again. In my own struggles to better myself, I had never imagined that I would make a real difference in the lives of other people. I think we all imagine helping others, and what that might be like. But if I’m honest, I was so busy “trying” to pull the log out of my own eye, I would have been embarrassed to attempt telling anyone else what I thought they should do. That didn’t stop me from time to time, of course. I often told people what I thought they should do. But it was conversation, mind you.
I had not told them what to do. I had shown them what to do. I had done it myself, and then I had shared my experience with them.
That moment was 18 years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.
It was then that I realized that I was having the perfect day my teacher had talked about. I smiled and looked at the restaurants across from the beach. I saw a very nice one and walked in. I thought, “I have to celebrate.”
I ordered the most expensive steak on the menu and asked them to bring me a bottle of their best wine. That teacher had also taught me that people who strive for greatness in their life often find themselves alone because “eagles don’t flock.” All these years later, I would add, “and the eagle doesn’t mind at all.”
I was by myself, and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I ate that steak, and drank that wine, appreciating every moment. Part of me knew that it would not last.
I now knew what a perfect day really was.
Experiences like that cannot be easily shared with others. But an experience like that does give you a confidence that makes you more effective in the things you do.
I was being told that I was a leader, and that I had a gift. When you don’t feel like a leader, and you don’t feel gifted, those words run off you like water off the back of a duck. I thought that if I could show people a way to get where I had traveled, that would fit the description of leader.
As far as a gift goes, well… let me explain it this way:
Later I would live in Costa Rica, and I would be on the phone with a potential client. He was very skeptical and asked me all kinds of questions I struggled to accommodate. He was so jaded that he was upset about the possibilities I was telling him about. Then he asked, “Who are you, and why should I believe you?”
I paused and looked out one of my 8 French doors going out to the back yard, not really knowing what to say. I saw the birds of paradise growing there. When he was quiet, I asked, do you know what a bird of paradise is?
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “I have them growing in my backyard.”
He asks, “You do?” [his inflection going up changing to innocence and curiosity]
“Yeah, a
bunch of them. I used to buy them once a year for my friend. It’s her favorite flower. And there they are growing all over my back yard.”
“That’s so cool,” he responded.
From there we were friends, and he never questioned me again. He did become a client and he did have a great experience.
The point is that I really do not see myself as gifted. If you do the work, and you find something of value, you have that experience, and you can share that experience with others. All of the words in the world could not reach that man. But one real true thing changed everything for him. All I did was tell him it was there.
Going back to that night, my perfect day would stay with me. But more than that, it would influence almost every important decision I would make in the future. The most common question I get (from Americans) is “Vance, if trading is so great, why do you spend time showing others how to do it?”
Now you know.
As the years passed, I saw that my teacher was right. “There are good days, there are better days, and every once in a great while, there are even perfect days.”
I would have more perfect days in the many years that followed. I can tell you that you don’t know when the perfect day is coming. You only find out when you are in it. I have seen perfect days increase in frequency. I’m not sure that any perfect day feels quite as great as your first, but they are perfect.
I can tell you one thing about perfect days: they always involve someone else.
I wish you many perfect days in your life.
Love is God,
Peace to you,
Vance Williams
