What does it take to be great; to really make it? Why do some succeed and others fail? This true story is about one important ingredient to being different. To making something work when others could not, or would not.
Many years ago, an old country doctor drove to town, hitched his horse, quietly slipped into a drug store by the back door and began ‘dickering’ with the young drug clerk. For more than an hour, behind the prescription counter, the old doctor and the clerk talked in low tones. Then the doctor left. He went out to the buggy and brought back a large, old-fashioned kettle and a big wooden paddle (used for stirring the content of the kettle), and deposited them in the back of the store.
The clerk inspected the kettle, reached into his inside pocket, took out a roll of bills and handed it over to the doctor. The roll contained exactly $500-the clerk’s entire savings!
The doctor handed over a small slip of paper, on which there was written a secret formula. The words on that small slip of paper were worth a king’s ransom! But not to the doctor! Those magic words were needed to start the kettle boiling, but neither the doctor nor the young clerk knew what fabulous fortunes were destined to flow from that kettle.
The old doctor was glad to sell the outfit for $500. The money would pay off his debts and give him freedom of mind. The clerk was taking a big chance by staking his entire life’s savings on a mere scrap of paper and an old kettle! He never dreamed his investment would start a kettle overflowing with gold that would surpass the miraculous performance of Aladdin’s lamp.
What the clerk really purchased was an idea!
The old kettle and the wooden paddle, and the secret message on a slip of paper, were incidental. The strange performance of that kettle began to take place after the new owner mixed with the secret instructions an ingredient of which the doctor knew nothing.
The old kettle is now one of the world’s largest consumers of sugar, thus providing jobs of a permanent nature to thousands of men and women in growing sugar cane, and in refining and marketing sugar.
The old kettle consumes, annually, millions of glass bottles, providing jobs to huge numbers of glass workers. The old kettle gives employment to an army of clerks, copywriters and advertising experts throughout the nation.
It has brought fame and fortune to scores of artists who have created magnificent pictures describing the product. The old kettle has converted a small southern city into the business capital of the South, which now benefits-directly or indirectly – every business, practically every resident of the city. The influence of this now benefits every civilized country in the world, pouring out a continuous stream of gold to all who touch it.
Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you may be engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words “Coca-Cola,” that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single idea, and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk – Asa Candler – mixed with the secret formula was … imagination!
From the book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill
Do you have the imagination it takes to become great?
If you feel like you have forgotten how to dream, and you no longer remember using your imagination, may I suggest you work to bring back the person you were when you were willing to follow your intuition and thought nothing of dreaming. You are designed to dream and imagine. You are also meant to grow up and mature. Intuition, imagination, and dreaming are all part of who are meant to be. I challenge you to dig deep and become all you were created to be as a business owner on your road trip to freedom.
