Tweet

Lesson #2: Make A Commitment To Be The Very Best

Article Overview: “My first ambition in life was to be Miles Davis,” recalls Gardner. “I didn’t want to be a trumpet player, an artist or a jazz musician – I literally wanted to be Miles. My mom said to me, ‘Baby, you can’t be Miles. There ain’t but one, and he got that job.’ But I made a commitment at an early age that I wanted to be world class at something,”

Lesson #2: Make A Commitment To Be The Very Best

“My first ambition in life was to be Miles Davis,” recalls Gardner. “I didn’t want to be a trumpet player, an artist or a jazz musician – I literally wanted to be Miles. My mom said to me, ‘Baby, you can’t be Miles. There ain’t but one, and he got that job.’ But I made a commitment at an early age that I wanted to be world class at something,”

Before realizing that his dream of becoming Miles Davis was unattainable, Gardner had spent nine years studying trumpet. “I wanted to be world class at it or world class at something,” he recalls. “At 18, Miles Davis was in New York playing with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. At the same age, I was playing with some cats named Pookie and Ray Ray. It wasn’t going to happen.”

Gardner attributes his rise to the top to his mother and her “spiritual genetics”, which encouraged Gardner to dream big dreams for himself and strive to become the best. “We all understand genetics,” says Gardner. “You get your eyes from your dad, your mom’s nose, there’s nothing you can do about that. But your spiritual genetics you can choose, pick, embrace and commit to. That’s what I did.”

Gardner’s mother was a natural born teacher; she both loved doing it and did it well. But, after being abandoned by her husband, she found herself in the position of having to care for 12 children all on her own. She sacrificed her dream of teaching to take numerous part-time jobs that could better support the family. “Though my mom had too many of her own dreams denied, deferred and destroyed, she instilled in me that I could have dreams,” says Gardner. “And not just have dreams but had a responsibility to make them reality. My mom taught me from a very early age that I could do anything I wanted to do.”

One day while the two were watching a college basketball game, Gardner said, “Wow, one day those guys are going to make a million dollars.” His mother replied, “Son, if you want to, one day you could make a million dollars.” Gardner recalls being stunned after hearing that statement. “Until she said it, it wasn’t a possibility. I always knew I wanted to be world class at something. I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t run and catch a ball, and I couldn’t dance. But I was pretty good at reading and writing. So that was my ticket.”

To this day, Gardner maintains the attitude that not only can he do anything he sets his mind to, but he can succeed and become the very best at it. “We bag elephants,” Gardner says of the high-powered investment deals he negotiates on daily basis. “That's our motto. We go after the big deals because it takes just as much effort to land a $500 account as it does to land a $5 million one.”

Related Articles
  Sales Mission Complete
  Lessons from Sobibor
  Manage Fear of Failure
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  You Coach but Do Your Salespeople Follow Through?

Article Tags: ambition, born teacher, cats, charlie parker, college basketball game, dad, dreams, jazz musician, job, john coltrane, miles davis, million dollars, mom, nine years, part time jobs, pookie, ray ray, spiritual genetics, those guys, trumpet player



Related Forum Posts
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.
List of a few legitimate online business - Well My main methods to make money so far are adsense,affiliate marketing and freelancing and I think these are some more sites that can help me to make some more money.Your reviews are welcome: ::linkworth dot com>This site is awesome and offer lots of ways to make money. ::mturk dot com>complete simple mini task and get paid ::microworkers dot com>complete simple mini task and get paid ::shorttask dot com>complete simple mini task and get paid ::istockphoto dot com>sell stock photos ::eHow dot com>Make money writing ::Bukisa>Make money writing ::Associate Content>Make money writing ::Triond>Make money writing ::fiverr dot com>$5 freelancing job ::cpalead dot com>make money by completing offer ::peerfly>make money by completing offer
Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods - We haven't sent out the physical letter yet as the person owning the list wanted to make modifications to the letter that we knew would work well but the List owner had a point - it didn't reflect her personality so her clients would know it didn't come from her. Lesson learned for me. We're back to the drawing board with the list owner more involved in the development of the letter and emails. I should have known better being a Business Analyst in my day job that you never leave the end-user out. So Evan we haven't had the opportunity to test any of it yet but it's been a fun process for me to stand back and look at.
Re: 10 Tips to Start an Online Business - [quote="Anya101":1y6il6zm] 5. Make it very easy for people to order your products. The easier the order process, the more orders you will get. Make sure your payment pages are secured. If you accept payment online, it is [/quote:1y6il6zm] *This* is very good advice. I went to a site a couple of weeks ago to order a DVD, an independent movie, and instead of having Paypal, I had to jump through hoops to sign up for their payment system. It would have taken me more minutes than I cared to spend, so I just didn't bother!
Re: May Traffic Drop Off from Google's Update - I feel that the best way to make your website click is to target both SEO and other marketing channels. In case it is not possible for website owners or webmasters to invest into other marketing channels, then they must make sure that they are following guidelines laid down by search engines. Whenever there is an update in algorithm, it is only done to filter out artificial websites from the search results. However , it is observed that on several occasions innocent people fall victim to the update in algorithm. If you have an article website and your member copy pasted article from some other website, there is very little you can do to avoid duplicate penalty. The latest tips to avoid your rankings going into roller coaster ride is to make sure :- a) That your website is having genuine and unique content b) Make sure you do not use any automated SEO tools. c) Make sure that your back linking pattern is not a pre-defined targeting same set of keywords again and again. d) Add useful content to your website every single week or fortnight ( if possible) e) Abstain from artificial keyword density f) Abstain from empty pages on your website or doorway pages with empty or duplicate content. g) Make sure you to not have HTML errors in your coding ( If your H1 tag is left open, then it can trigger SPAM ALERT on Google.)


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to Set Sales Goals that Work

The OLD Way of Advertising, May Not be so OLD

TRADE SHOW FOLLOW-UP: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.