Overcoming Obstacles – The Mindset of a Successful Trader
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A Personal Story of Reflection
This thanksgiving I loaded up the family into our Suburban and headed out to southwest Kansas. With chicken McNuggets in our lapsand Veggie Tales playing on the DVD we started the 6 hour drive to Garden City to visit my grandparents who are still two of the most active and energetic people I know.
Family is so important to Laura and I. We love the holidays when we get to share in the joy and successes of those we hold most dear. It is something I look forward to all year long.
As we made the last turn into the SouthWinds Country Club we passed a modest sized, pueblo style home that sat on the corner of the street. Seeing that home again instantly took me back to when I was a boy.
All of a sudden I was 10 years old again, living in a little double wide trailer on my grandparents farm. My grandfather was, by that time, a successful farmer and maintained a membership at the SouthWinds Country Club. Each summer he would pay for all 5 grandchildren to enroll in junior golf at the club. That meant twice a week grandma would load us all up and make the 45 minute drive to Garden City so we could play 9 holes with some of the wealthiest children in the area.
As you can imagine, southwest Kansas doesn’t provide a great deal of opportunity to rub elbows with the rich and famous. For a young boy who’s family never had 2 nickels to rub together these trips were a glimpse inside a world that I could only dream off.
The houses that surrounded the golf course seemed bigger than life. For a young boy of 10 they were the biggest houses I’d ever seen. They were mansions as far as I was concerned. I could only imagine the impressive parties, fancy cars, and wonderful lives the people within those houses possessed.
Each week I’d walk into this upscale world with my used set of clubs, wrangler jean and hand-me-down sneakers. I stood out like a sore thumb. It was like being invited to a “black tie” party but all you’ve got is a brown suit. Talk about feeling awkward and out of place.
The other children in contrast had beautiful new clubs, the latest Callaway and Ping bags and some of the better golfers even had golf shoes with the little spikes on the bottom. Most of them had parents who were members of the club so they had open credit lines at the snack shop inside the clubhouse. I would see them run in after nine holes and order a Dr. Pepper and a Snickers bar and think how wonderful it would be to eat as much candy and drink as much soda as I wanted.
For my brother and I, getting a coke from the corner gas station was a special occasion. After a school recital or a good report card our father would take us to that gas station and let us pick out a drink and a snack. It was a big event.
Don’t get me wrong. I had a wonderful life growing up. I had a mother and father who loved me and our home was always a safe place. But having the opportunity to experience how “the other half” lived made me painfully aware that I was poor. I could have taken that knowledge a couple of ways.
First I could have been envious and resentful. I could have begun to hate those who had more than me. I could have played the “it’s not fair” card. And I probably did at one time or another.
Lucky for me, those summer weeks built in me a burning desire for something better. It showed me that there was something else out there, and it was close. As I look back at defining experiences in my life, I cannot discount the untaught lessons I learned on those summer afternoons.
Life is quite a bit different now. As I drive down the street toward my grandparents house (they now live in a new home just off the 13th green) I look at the houses that I once saw as mansions. What once seemed larger than life, now appears modest. The Country Club where I once felt so out of place now seems like a wonderfully quaint golf course with ordinary people content with a simpler life.
I’m no longer the self-conscious 10 year old with empty pockets. Admittedly I still have jeans with holes in them. But they came that way and cost almost $200. I have become a success. The life that I once envied is not only within my reach, I’ve moved far past it.
I now have ability to join any country club I want. My children attend the best schools and I am able to provide the kind of life for my family that I could not have imagined only a few short years ago.
Here is the moral of this story.
Don’t ever let your current situation, or where you come from dictate where you end up. You posses a capacity for greatness. It doesn’t typically come in big chunks but rather in small victories that move you closer to your goals. So recognize every accomplishment no matter how small as one step closer to your perfect life.
“Your Past Does not Equal Your Future.”
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Author Resource:-
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By :
Jason Stapleton
Submitted
2012-02-09 09:05:21 |
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