(67th Entry) “If you build it, they will come…”

God! I hope so. Remember this line from the film FIELD OF DREAMS? People thought Kevin Costner’s role was crazy for building a baseball field in the middle of a
corn field. This is how I feel right now building two new factories in tough economic times and trying to hire disabled individuals to work in them. I feel a little crazy, a little over-whelmed!

I’ve said on many occasions that this is a dream. What I’m trying to do is a dream… a way to give back. Do something different.

What are dreams? Why do we follow our dreams? Why do some people never follow their dreams?

Dreams aren’t always rational. Sometimes they’re something that we’re being called to do. Doing what I’m doing in San Miguel probably was not the best or most rational business decision to be making at this time… or at least at the speed at which I’m doing it.

Motivation, Dreams, Desires!!! What causes us to want to fight for something, fight to be able to do something? Why do some people just give up when faced with adversity?

This week is looking like a busy, fun filled, exciting week. On Monday, July 28th, the State government of Guanjato Mexico is coming out to inaugurate a joint program that makes it possible for us to hire more disabled individuals. Then on Friday, August 1st, I’m giving a talk at a national clinic in Mexico called, Teleton. It’s a system of clinics that work with disabled children. The title of my talk is… “Learning to live with, feel comfortable and be productive with a disability”. And… in between keep working with employees, factories, customers and more.

What motivated me to get to this point in my life? How did I learn to live with a disability? What were the steps to feeling comfortable with my disability? Why is there a desire to be productive when in reality I could get by with being less than productive?

Adversity in life seems to cause some to do more and others to do nothing.

I think it starts very early in life.

I think I said this many entries ago… I’ve been asked many times what I consider to be the difference between the issues of having congenital disability and having an accident. And then.. one step further… why do some that have accidents do well in their recovery and others do nothing at all. Simple answer… Those individuals who had happy, healthy, productive lives prior to their accident learn to have happy, healthy, productive lives after their accident. And for many… that had unhappy lives prior to their accident continue that pattern. There are always exceptions! This is not absolute… just a general observation from my own experience.

Once we establish a pattern… Patterns are difficult to break, but they can be broken. Patterns start for many different reasons. Sometimes they start because it’s just easier for people to let us do what we’re doing than to try to motivate us to do something different. If you remember back to my entries 45 to 49 talking about the original grabado maestro and the negative effects he had on several of my employees, then it’ll be no surprise that these employees are again acting out those negative patterns.

We didn’t stay on top of the problem. We became involved in other issues around the company and didn’t keep our focus on the originals problem. How do you motivate people to change? The two girls know right from wrong. They know what they’re doing. The problem is that they have no respect for themselves, for the company, for their co-workers or me.

Another whole dimension of motivation is respect… for ourselves and for those around us. Until we have respect, all other issues are mute. Why should I do something for myself when I can ask someone else to do it for me? Why should I work hard if no one penalizes me when I don’t?

In so many ways bad habits of any sort boil down to respect.