Initiative

I wanted to share with you something that I discovered while I was watching an excellent video online. I learned about the concept of initiative and taking action and how simple it can be to catapult yourself past immobility. Having said this, keep in mind that initiative is as essential to success as a hub is essential to a wheel. And initiative is precisely taking action when we know it ought to be done but no one is asking for it to be done. Most of the time, when we elect to put aside some action that needs to be taken, we are anticipating that our effort may not give us exactly what we desire from it. Whether our desire is instant gratification or simply a journey of smooth sailing we often anticipate one or both of these things will evade us and we are caught up in immobility due to fear. When we accept that our efforts will at some point deliver to us that which we are working toward, we can more easily surpass any fear that stumps us.

Taking action that results in achievement truly does require us to gradually overcome the bumps and tough spots along the way, but by continually putting forth effort in this manner, we can achieve numerous things that are very much worth the work.

I'd like to share with you a powerful example of how initiative can propel a person into high achievement. Two men who initially came to know one another while in high school, were each doing their own thing in their adult lives, but they did manage to keep in contact. One day the two men decided that since they recognized a need in the computer industry they would take it upon themselves to write a simplified version of the programming language called BASIC. For two months they worked on the rewriting of BASIC, and then contacted contacted the computer engineer who designed the computer that used the language. The simplified version worked, and the engineer was so impressed with the work that the two men were given a contract with the production company. Soon they were adapting other programming languages for the computer and by that summer they formed a company they called Microsoft. Without initiative, a person will remain caught up in a life of less than average quality. With initiative, comes great reward.


Thank you for taking initiative in reading this post.
Joe Clinton.