Get Back On

Her name was Janie. She had thick red hair, a lot of patience, and a lot of lessons to teach a passel of little dairy farm kids who were thrilled to death to finally have a pony of their own.

Not too big, not too little. Important factors since, once Dad taught us how to catch, bridle, and climb on her bareback, we were on our own. Mom was a city girl with crippled feet, and a bunch of little ones to take care of, and Dad had his hands full with the cows and farm.

I was in 2^nd grade the evening we brought Janie home. As soon as she was unloaded, Dad began his riding lessons. Beginning with the oldest, and then me as 2^nd in line. Our driveway was lined with old silver willows with big heavy branches hanging about 4 feet off the ground. My sister's first trip ended quickly in disaster. As big sister, who was 8, headed Janie for the gravel road that ran in front of our house, Janie took a route that conveniently went under a tree branch, and wiped big sister right off her back.

Lesson #1. Get back on, and make the horse go where YOU want it to go. OK, Susie's turn.

My turn lasted only a wee bit longer than big sister's. I got Janie headed up the road. Things were looking good. Until Janie figured she'd gone far enough, and abruptly reversed course. I simply fell off. We tried again. She did the same thing--and so did I. At that particular juncture, Dad did one of the wisest things a father can do. He taught me...

Lesson #2. Whining never helps. He whacked me on the bottom, set me back up on Janie, and said, “Now RIDE her!” That was all it took. I sucked it up, made a quick mental adjustment, ratcheted up my determination a notch, and rode her. That was the beginning of new discoveries about persistence, over-coming challenges, situation analysis, and problem solving.

Big sister on Dad's horse, Blaze; me on Janie; and oldest little brother. 1963

Earlier this week I was searching for quotes to use on the Farm & Ranch Personnel site I'm building for Clayton, and came across the transcript of a commencement speech given by Steve Jobs at Stanford in 2005. Until now, my biggest interest had been in his company (Apple) since one of the best investment decisions I ever made was to pick up stock before Ipod hit the shelves. What I never realized, was that there was a period of time Steve Jobs was NOT Apple, and he was the reason the stock was now worth investing in. Here's an excerpt of that speech:

“...I found what I loved to do early in life...[we] started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired.

“How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months...I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over...”

He goes on to talk about his new endeavors, and how Apple ended up buying a new company he'd started. A company that “...is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance...”

His summary: “I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith...Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do...”

I only wish Steve Jobs could have lived a few more months to watch his company blow all estimates out of the water this week, and overnight, become the most valuable publically-traded company in the world!

I love these true stories of America's entrepreneurs. Even the founder of the company we spent 37 years at, failed 2 or 3 times before he got it right with the help of having the right people in the right place at the right time. These guys refused to become victims.

It's “Cowboy Character” at its finest.

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”

Pr 24:16