Chapter 19. Begin It Now!

 

"A mistake is simply another way of doing things."

 
 --Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post
 

"Find out who you are, and do it on purpose."

 
 --Dolly Parton, country and western singer
 

"Build a dream and the dream will build you."

 
 --Robert H. Schuller, motivational writer
 

"It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through."

 
 --Zig Ziglar, motivational business writer

Begin It Now!

Time to Go to Lunch

In a small town in rural New Hampshire an enormous chunk of rock has just broken off from a mountainside and rolled down onto the highway below. The boulder is enormous, some 25 feet high and 25 feet wide, and it is now perched in the middle of the main road leading in and out of the town.

To move this boulder will be an enormous task. It will take several munitions experts to blast the rock to pieces, a bevy of cranes and bulldozers to push the debris into a mound, and a fleet of trucks to haul it away. The job will take many days, and will cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars. The town council convenes and decides to call in bids from local contractors.

The bids come pouring in, with estimates ranging from $100,000 to half a million dollars.

Then, just before the bidding closes, an estimate arrives from a contractor whom nobody knows, and who works in a town an hour away.

His price: $25,000.

Estimated time to do the entire job: half a day.

The town council is amazed ...

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