Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Superman died yesterday.


I'm talking about Christopher Reeves, the actor who starred in the in the "Superman" movies and was paralyzed in a horse back riding accident in 1995.

Is the disability and early death of this courageous, intensely positive and generous man a tragedy?

Sure it is - for those he left behind.

But his life?

His life was a triumph.

Look... we're all going to pass away some day and I know many of you reading this have lost people very close to you. I certainly have. There's no two ways around it. It hurts.

But in the end what really matters?

It's all about what you do with what you've got while you're here.

Reality is that we don't always have total control over all the things in our lives.

What we *do* have control over is our attitude and life all boils down to this:

We can spread light or we can spread darkness.

It's our choice, moment by moment, and 'circumstances' don't have a thing to do with it.

What are *you* spreading?

--- Christopher Reeves was a master marketer

Reeves had a vision of a better world - in his case better treatment for spinal cord injury patients - and he promoted it relentlessly.

Here's what Dr. John McDonald, the physician who worked with Reeves, had to say about his life:

"Before him there was really no hope.

If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he's changed all that. He's demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done."

'Before him there really was no hope...'

A lot of people think that marketing is all about money and the ego gratification that comes from it.

That may be satisfying for a short while, but the real, lasting satisfaction that comes from becoming a skilled marketer is knowing that you're helping improve the lives of other people.

The soundest businesses I've seen and the happiest people I've met operate from this simple realization.

Every human being I've ever met has challenges, limitations, and weaknesses, sometimes very serious ones.

Some people nurse their doubts and disappointments

Others make the focus of their lives taking the good they do have and working with it, leveraging it, and building on it.

Not everyone is going to have as dramatic a life story as Christopher Reeves, but everyone reading this can use the lessons they learn from the System and elsewhere to 'transform circumstances', to make things better... to bend steel in your bare hands...

Keep studying, keep working, have faith in yourself... the world is looking forward to *your* contribution.

Best,

Ken McCarthy
http://TheSystemSeminar.com

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Tivoli, New York 12583

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