The Re-launch of the Little Engine Blog

I've been away for a little while. The last entry I made was on April 21st, about three months ago. In that time, I had some serious thinking time, as well as plenty of time with my beautiful wife and four wonderful boys.

I made a decision that has been a very long time in the making. I believe it may have been longer in the coming then even I can determine. The whole story of how I came to this decision is one that I may tell in a later post.

The decision I made, is to set a goal to begin a career as a motivational speaker. It's a lofty goal, but one I think is going to be fun to chase.

I have a problem right from the start and it occurred right here on this blog. I started it and then got board and stopped. I got board because I lacked focus. The blog was disjointed and I didn't really know what I was going to write from entry to entry. This is not the way to run a Motivational speaking business.

However, I have another problem as well. I am lacking in the basic knowledge it takes to run a motivational speaking business. But, what to learn? Napoleon Hill taught us that we don't need to know all the books in the library, we just need to know where the library is. This concept makes me feel better about the magnitude of material I need to go through. But still what do I need to read in order to have the knowledge and wisdom it takes to be a great motivational speaker?

I was disappointed to find that I misplaced a book by James C. Humes called "The Witt and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln". In that book was a wonderful quote. Someone asked Lincoln what the source of all his wisdom was. His paraphrased reply was, he mastered (Not read or studied, but mastered) three works. First was the bible, "which holds all the secrets of the universe"; the second was the complete works of William Shakespeare, "who had an uncanny understanding of the human psyche" and the last was the complete collection of William Blackstone's commentaries, which Lincoln said, at his time, "no young lawyer should be without".

The point is, in order to succeed, all that is required is to master a small part of what you want to do and then turn to the library, or your mastermind for the rest of your required knowledge. (I will get into what a mastermind is in a future post. Hint: Chapter X).

So, what should I master. Abraham Lincoln did most of the work for me. I need to master the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. I am not a lawyer, so I don't need to master Blackstone. But what should I have in place of Blackstone.

When you stop and think about it, the answer is very simple. The largest selling self help book in history is the Bible, but the second largest is "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. This is the second larges selling because Hill's ideas work. These are the works I have to master. But, it doesn't stop there. In order to completely understand the thought processes of Napoleon Hill it would be a good Idea to study the works of two other people (Yes, I said study). Those people are Charles F. Haanel who Hill attributed a large amount of his success, and W. Clement Stone who was an associate of Hill's.

Even though Abraham Lincoln believed he needed to master three works, I have a very hard time justifying not adding a fourth work to be mastered. That is Sun Tzu's "The Art of War". This is a work which is in the library of many high powered corporate executives. My opinion is, if Bill Gates has it in his library why shouldn't Joe Bagadonuts, owner of Bagadonuts Tavern in Center Silly Philly.

Now let's go back to the focus problem I had. I need to master these works and I have to be focused with the blog. So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I got an idea from a friendly group who meet on a website called www.talkshoe.com. They call themselves the Focus Society of Overachievers. When they started late last year, they reviewed chapter by chapter, "Think and Grow Rich". At present, they are reviewing Haanel's seven book series "The Master Key".

My idea is to do the same thing right here on this blog. I'll start with "Think and Grow Rich" and review a chapter at a time. My vision is many people will read the posts and tell me if I'm spot on or if I need to adjust my thinking. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing lots of opinions and maybe even some debate.

Now, am I saying that my learning will stop with these books? Far from it. I have a lot to learn about business and in particular about the speaking business. I am in the middle of developing a mastermind of people who can point me in the right direction. Because of the mastermind and because I know where the library is, I don't need to master these things.

Where this road is going to take me, I haven't got a clue. And yes, I am a little frightened, but I am more excited about the rewards of finally doing something I've been thinking about for years.