The Little Girl Who Wanted To Fly
by Pat Crosby
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to fly. She would lie on her back on the soft green grass, and stare wide-eyed at the immense blue sky. "Look," she would ponder to herself, twirling a blade of grass in her teeth, "Those geese are flying high. And the clouds are floating by."
A rare plane would sometimes pass by in the sky high above her sight, leaving the white tracer of its tail across the sky of her mind.
One day, when I grow up, she mused to herself, I too, will fly.
Carefully, she tucked her dream inside her heart. Young as she was, she already learned that if she shared her dream, others would shatter it with ridicule and put downs, scorn and sarcasm. So she smiled to herself, bided her time, and kept her secret dream in silence.
Years went by. The little girl grew and became a beautiful young woman.
Every so often, the little girl/beautiful young woman would take her secret dream out of the secret place inside her heart, spread it out, and remember her innermost secret desires:
YES! Someday, she would fly!
In school, she learned to only put down on paper what the teachers liked so she could get those big bright A's on her report card. And get approval from all the adults around her. She never mentioned her dreams to anyone again. As her new adult life became busy, even she forgot about them.
After graduation, she got a J-O-B.
That’s when she learned a very cruel lesson. She could work fifty-one weeks of the year, commuting two hours a day on a hot crowded subway, to get one week off a year to lie on her back, stare at the sky, and remember her dream of how much she wanted to fly. But now, she was so tired from working fifty-one weeks of the year, commuting two hours a day, and enduring the suffocating hot ride on the packed subway train every day.
At work she put up with the on-going insulting remarks of her fellow workers who spent hours every day telling each other sad and depressing stories of their lives while making wounding, sarcastic jokes at others' expense. They went on and on about how much they hated their jobs. Complaining, whining, belittling. How they all wished they could do something else.
Somehow, the little girl realized these people would never leave the prisons of their own minds. They seemed to enjoy, in some perverse way, complaining.
Our little girl, who was now a beautiful young woman on the outside, but still a girl in her heart, buried her treasured dreams deeper inside herself. In fact, she was so busy and so tired, that even she forgot all about them.
One day a friend invited her to an "Opportunity Meeting.” To her surprise, everyone at the Opportunity Meeting was talking about wanting to fly!
Live the life of your dreams.
What you believe, you can achieve.
The sky's the limit.
Fly HIGH.
Create the life of your dreams.
Oh my! The little girl/beautiful young woman wondered if she was dreaming . . . or hallucinating. All of these people were talking about their dreams! And some of the people were actually living their dreams.
The little girl/young wide-awake woman was spellbound as she listened to story after story unfold of people growing into the realization that they could actualize their dreams! They could make their deepest desires a physical reality. People were making their dreams their real living realities!
The little girl began pinching herself to see if she was real.
As she left the Opportunity Meeting, clutching her new dream-building kit, she was beyond excited, thrilled, and on-fire! She couldn't wait to get home and start studying all about it and listened late into the night to the CDs about people who were flying—people who were living their dreams; people who only worked ten hours or twenty hours a week—from beaches, from sailing ships, from home offices, from verandas! People who did not commute two hours a day on hot, crowded, stifling subway trains.
People who were their own bosses; people who made their own decisions on where to work, when to work, and how to work; people who had their own businesses; people who worked from home, or from wherever they wanted to work.
“WOW! WOW! WOW,” was all the little girl/young woman could say. The next day she flew home from work. She was even more on fire and called up her friend who had taken her to the Opportunity Meeting.
"How do I get started? What do I do? Please tell me how to do this. I want to fly!"
Being an exceptionally smart young woman, she listened carefully and then followed all the advice and suggestions of the people who were already flying.
Learning to fly, of course, has its ups and downs. Nevertheless, the young woman kept up with her flying lessons. Every day, she practiced more. She studied. She mentored. She trained. In the beginning she went out with her flying instructors. Until the big day came—she went out solo! She got her wings. WOW!
Today, she has her own flying school and teaches people all around the world how to fly in the jet of their own dreams. She teaches people how to use the vehicle of Network Marketing to create a life that others only dream of: a lifestyle of play, fun and ease; a lifestyle with more money than bills; a lifestyle that helps other people create more money than bills; a lifestyle that empowers people to live their dreams; a lifestyle that includes lots of flying—flying to all kinds of fun events, flying to conventions, flying on dream vacations that she keeps winning from her Network Marketing company, flying to the bank to deposit her paychecks.
Most importantly, she flies to the heights of her own innate God-given talents, dreams and achievements. She is living her life to its fullest potential, growing and stretching her wings everyday, learning to fly better and faster, further and wider.
All of her new friends and fellow networkers are the most incredibly positive people. People who want to grow and evolve. People who aspire to be the very best they can be. People who study and apply self-improvement and pure communication and who see the best in other people, speak of the best in other people, and mastermind to help each person fulfill their own great destiny. No more whiners and complainers. She’s living a life that others have long forgotten how to dream of.
Her greatest thrill is to meet people who forgot their dreams, and to remind them of their own special dreams, to wake them up to their dreams. And to show them how to fly to whatever heights they want to go.
Ahhh . . . Now our brilliant young beautiful soulful woman runs her own flight school! And this great leader has become an incredible captain!
The sky's the limit!
Network Marketing is the vehicle.
Freedom of time and money and lifestyle is the destination.
Copyright 2007 - 2018. Pat Crosby. All Rights Reserved
Reprinted with Permission
Chicken Soup; for the Network Marketer's Soul
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Pat Crosby's 26+ years experience in the network marketing industry have given Pat a wide range of experiences from beginner to team leader, inspirer, and trainer of thousands of people.
Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul and author of the best-selling book The Success Principles, jump-started his career with his mentor W. Clement Stone where he was taught fundamental success principles that he still operates from today.
Over the years his association with individuals such as Mark Victor Hansen, Janet Switzer, John Gray, Bob Proctor… and others led Jack to form a master mind group where these and other leaders can share philosophies and brainstorm new ideas.
Jack has also been a featured guest on more than 1,000 radio and television programs some of which include: Oprah, 20/20, Inside Edition, The Today Show, Larry King Live, Fox and Friends, The CBS Evening News, The NBC Nightly News, Eye to Eye, CNN's Talk Back Live!, PBS, QVC and many others, and is a featured presenter on the run away hit DVD "The Secret".
He has also been involved in Network Marketing directly and indirectly for many years and speaks regularly to Network Marketing organizations.
Mark Victor Hanson is the founder of MEGA Book Marketing University and Building Your MEGA Speaking Empire. Both are annual conferences where Mark coaches and teaches new and aspiring authors, speakers and experts on building lucrative publishing and speaking career
Mark is also known as a passionate philanthropist and humanitarian, working tirelessly for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, March of Dimes, Childhelp USA and many others.
In the year 2000, The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans honored Mark with the prestigious Horatio Alger Award. Each year, this association honors American leaders who personify the virtues and principles inherent in the success stories written by nineteenth century American author Horatio Alger, Jr. As an award winner, Mark's extraordinary life achievements stand as a powerful example that the free enterprise system still offers opportunity to all. In 2000, Northwood University honored him as the Outstanding Business Leader of the Year. In 2002, The University of Toledo presented Mark with an Honorary PhD in Business Administration and established the Mark Victor Hansen Entrepreneurial Excellence Fund, which will help shape the minds of future business leaders and assist in the development of the faculty who will teach them.
Mark presents 50-75 seminars each year, serves as chairman of Mark Victor Hansen & Associates, Inc., co-founder and chief visionary officer of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, Inc. and president of One Minute Millionaire, LLC.
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