(6th Entry) I’m “Doing” a Lot of Things…

I’m doing a lot of things that I said I would never do or never do again! This year, 2007, has been an exciting year. The year started out with a visit to New York City in January where I met a new friend going to The New School majoring in documentary film making. He mentioned that he would like to film me. Of course my reaction was NO! BUT… I would love to work together and do some documentaries on the issue of disability.

My family has an importing business which wholesales Mexican made goods in the U. S. (My entire family lives in Mexico.) One of our business partners had been listening to me talk about my desire to do many of the things listed in the Mission Statement. One morning he calls up all excited… “We’re having problems with production. Why don’t we open our own factory and we can even hire disabled individuals.”

A week ago Friday I’m having a conversation with another friend. We came to the conclusion that the quickest thing I can do to begin to get my message out was to do a BLOG. Well… that was a week ago today. Life seems to be moving exponentially faster these days.

So what am I doing that I said I would never do or never do again?

The first thing is talking publicly about hiring disabled individuals. Let people know what I am doing. There’s a part me that says NO! Don’t do it. (In my next blog, I’ll tell a story about an experience that I had in the NYC subway in 1988 called “It’s All About Me!”) On the other hand (no pun intended), I’m really excited to be doing something, to have a dream come true. It’s a delicate balancing act, one which I’ll talk extensively about in my book on my life in corporate America.

Milestone: Last Monday our first disabled individual started at our new factory. Next Monday our second person starts.

Reality: If we can sell more, we can hire more people. It’s a simple business equation.

My dilemma is… “How do I balance all of this?” How do I have a dream and yet make it a reality without sacrificing the integrity of the endeavor.

Second, I really didn’t want to go before the camera again. I recently purchased a semi-professional video camera to begin working on documentaries. As I said, back in January I was adamant about not going in front of the camera. As soon as I received the camera a good friend of mine suggested that I could do Pod Casts. (I bought an iPod in August which has opened up a whole knew world for me. I’m so behind in technology.) I realized quickly that I couldn’t ask people to go in front of the camera if I wasn’t willing to do so myself.

Bottom Line: If I truly have a Dream, I have to be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it! My dream can’t materialize living like a hermit.