One of my favorite things to do is watch motivational type movies and think about how they apply to business.
We just watched A Knight’s Tail again the other night and I love the motivational part of this movie.
It’s about taking what opportunities are presented to you and using them to change the direction of your life.
There are a couple of important scenes that really tie the story together. William Thatcher (our hero) is heading back to London for the first time since his father put him under the charge of Sir Ector (someone of ‘some’ nobility). His father’s instructions were simple, “Go out there and prove that you can change your stars”. William was a very small child at the time but those words stuck with him. Here he is now, some seventeen years later, riding a boat back to London to play his part in a jousting tournament. Something normally reserved for nobility, not a peasant squire. In fact, you can be arrested for impersonating someone in this way. As part of the climax of the film William finds his father and lets him know that the name he had been hearing chanted from the streets during the parade the day before was indeed his own son’s assumed name of “Ulrich von Lichtenstein”. He explains that it is possible to change your stars. It is a very emotional moment in the film for both father and son as it has taken 17 years to accomplish this goal.
I’ve found that most of the blue collar men and women I know are attempting the same thing. We graduated high school with the plan to work for/with a relative or friend in the construction/remodeling industry. For whatever reason those plans didn’t work out and we find ourselves starting a company doing the only thing we know. We are trying to find success on our own path. It’s not as common as it was maybe a hundred and fifty years ago. With the invent of the factory and this idea of ‘secure’ employment we are now in the minority and aren’t always taken seriously by the ‘educated’ world. Yet we move forward, believing that we can change our stars. Believing that if we work hard and stick to it we can and will be successful.
As bad as I want to have arrived at my destination I’m not there yet. Somehow I am still filled with hope. God has put some amazing people in my life that seem to see my potential a little clearer than I do. I pray that I can do the same for so many of you who have contacted me and let me know that this blog is serving some kind of purpose in your life. I hope that this post will help you believe that you can do it too. That you can change your stars, no matter how far away they seem to be and no matter how far you may have to reach.
Great post! Oddly enough Mary and I just watched A Knight’s Tale again the other night. It is a favorite, and is both inspirational and entertaining. I knew right away that you were referring to this when I saw the title of your post come across my email.
I look back over the last 6 months or so and see the passion and level of excellence you have brought to your Chiefs Fan podcasts and your Blue Collar Coaching podcasts and I cannot help but be hopeful and excited about what the future holds for you. We both know that circumstances are not, can not be, and should not be the thing we look to in order to judge success or to be the barometer for how things can be. I know you’ve gained a lot of wisdom from successful people, much of which you have shared with me personally and with your readers here on this site and through the podcasts. The practicing of that wisdom will result in success, it will result in changed stars.
As cliched as it may sound, I hope you keep your chin up and keep pressing forward.
Thank you for all the support you’ve given me over the years.
I love how you say “educated” people. I think you mean the people that see you stepping out of conformity and you make them uncomfortable by being different. Be careful of the “educated” people, they are the fat people telling you how to get skinny and the broke people telling you what to do with your money. I bet a lot of the big companies that went under over the last 3 years were full of “educated” people.
Josh Bulloc
Kansas City, MO
How can I help?
You know what, you are correct!
As much as we don’t want to admit it, we’re usually the only ones standing in our way of making a change.
Great point! I usually am my own worst enemy.
Thanks for commenting!