I started writing this newsletter as a follow up to my presentations at the National Safety Congress at McCormick Place in Chicago in 1988. It was a wonderful experience. They allowed me to present at the two early bird sessions and somewhere we worked in a talk for the youth section or some such thing and I had a booth and exhibited for three days. I had two standing ovations in my pocket together with five hundred business cards from attendees who expressed some interest in my services or products. I had given away some 2,000 copies of my little book modestly titled “World’s Greatest Safety Meeting Idea Book”; plus a couple of thousand little musical wheels reminding attendees to look for the greatness in everyone they met and I was absolutely, totally exhausted. I drove home to Battle Creek, Michigan a tired but contented man. Within a week I had turned those cards into a mail list and I soon had a newsletter put together and we mailed out 500 copies. That mailing pretty well locked me into work with major corporations and associations for the next five years. We mailed it out quarterly at that time and many years ago when we went online with it we turned it into a weekly publication. I can’t recall ever missing an issue thanks to my friend and associate Terry Pochert over in Arizona.
What, if any, good has this newsletter done? I haven’t a clue. Some of you wrote that it gave you hope; others said you were inspired to try harder, and a few of you wrote and said you loved the quotes. In my long career I have discovered again and again that I get a lot more out of doing things for others in return than I ever put out. I learned more when I first taught some creative classes than I learned in any other way. When it comes to public speaking I am certain that whenever I made presentations to professional speakers, mentored or gave classes on speaking I always came out a much better speaker from the experience. So it is with writing this newsletterr. It makes me examine what I am doing today and what I have done in the past and asking that continuing question, “Am I learning anything new and am I taking advantage of it.” Why don’t you take on the responsibility of teaching a class on your specialty? What about you writing a newsletter or a blog? Whenever I step out of my comfort zone I make it possible for personal growth. I don’t always come out a winner but I do hope that when I lose that I learn a valuable lesson. Comeon….give it a try.
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