The Drunk in Vail Story

Shared From: A Chapter from Al Killeen's Book, Soul Propriertorship.

As you strive to see your current situation from every angle, read the following story, which shows the futility of creating life the "normal" way - trying to base happiness and fulfillment only on superficial achievement. I started to look at life differently, from my values rather than from petty outcomes, after encountering the drunk in Vail.

In 1995, I was wandering through a convention festival one evening in Vail, Colorado, watching the embarassing antics of the drunken business folk away from home. I was alone and just making an appearance before returning to my room to prepare for the next morning's meetings.

As I walked past an outlying table, a friend hailed me. She sat with an elderly gentlemen who had six empty scotch glasses lined up like little crystal soldiers before their captain. He barely acknowledged me. Anne was clearly happy to see a friend. It wasn't clear whether the older fellow would last ten more minutes before collapsing into the empty little glass brigade lined up before him.

Anne asked me about my company's recent merger. I answered in detail, filling her in on the ups and downs of a newly merged company with four partners. She listened politely and nodded appropriately, each of us doing the same social dance that would have been entirely in place at court in France 300 years ago. It was a therapeutic conversation for me. I spewed out my concerns, fears, hopes and problems while Anne absorbed the words like a mind-wandering queen with a boring diplomat.

After my overview, which I naturally felt was the perfect balance of insight and conclusion, the old fellow at the end of the table finally stirred.

"Young man, do you mind if I give you some advice?" he slurred.

I looked him up and down.

"Absolutely, I'd love it," I lied as convincingly as I could. This ought to be good, I thought to myself with the snide self-righteousness of an egoist who feels he knows it all, but must allow things to simply play out.

He looked at me with a discerning, if bleary, eye.

"I've listened to you explain to Anne about your company and I would like to give you a great secret to life," he explained. "But before I do, I should tell you that I have successfully used this secret to start, build up, and sell three different mortgage companies to Wall Street, including the one that your young friend here now works for."

He started looking a lot less drunk to me, and a lot more interesting.

He went on. "By using this secret, I've created great wealth and now have a house in Aspen, another in Naples, and more money than I can spend in this lifetime. However, I deeply regret not using this secret in my health or relationships, as I have two ex-wives I send a lot of alimony to, three kids who won't speak to me, and a stomach full of ulcers."

By now he had my rapt attention.

"What is it?" I asked.

He told me.

"Young man, I see you making the same basic mistake that most people do. We wake up in the morning and face a solid wall of problems. The problems are like little red lights embedded in the wall. We push on each light to put it out. All the while, we worry about all the other lights. After we put them out, some light up again. At day's end, we look at our wall of worry and although two-thirds of the lights are out, some still burn brightly. We collapse into bed and wake up the next morning with the wall all lit up again - solid lights."

He continued with the solution.

"The great secret to the wall of worry is to turn it into glass and see through it. Look through it into your imagined future three years forward and see exactly what you dream for your life. See it clearly. You don't have to know exactly how you're going to get there, but you do have to see it clearly and keep it in focus.

"If you leave the wall glass and continue to focus three years out, something magic happens. Little threads of solutions come back from that vision of the future and those threads put out the lights in the wall before you. I don't know who or what solves today's problems by creating tomorrow's dreams, or even how it happens, but I can sincerely promise you that this secret will change your life."

After thanking him, I returned to the condo to think about what I wanted for my future three years out, and what would inspire me to take action toward that future.

He was right. His secret changed my life. This is what happened:

• Within a few days, I created my three year dream: to find my great purpose in life by helping other people find theirs.
• I decided to sell my mortgage company and find a better venue for discovering and practicing my great purpose in life.
• I considered how I could make my company unique and develop a special expression of its value to differentiate it from other companies.
• Over the next several months, while still keeping my dream before me on a constant basis, a random article, a random conversation with an employee, and dozens of other influences ultimately helped me figure out how to sell my company. I would create an entirely new program for small and medium sized companies to offer their employees that would create huge revenues for our company and be a win/win for all of us.
• I approached my business partners with my idea and they cautiously let me proceed with it. The results? This program, which I called "Shared Dream," allowed my company to develop strategic alliances with 93 different companies and add 35,000 employees to our preferred customer program. Those new customers created $300 million dollars in new loans for our company in just three years and attracted a buyer for our company!
• My partners and I split the small profits when we sold the company. I found my current passion and started a new company of my own design, through which I can live my life's purpose to help other people find and live theirs!

It took me five years instead of three, but the Drunk in Vail's great secret literally changed my life, and it can change yours, as well, if you are simply willing to try it.

You will create your vision of the future in Step 3. For now, turn your wall of worry into glass and use your objective assessment of your current reality to start drawing to it the threads from your future. This will happen on its own as you continue to embody your values.

Copyright - 2010 - Al Killeen, Soul Proprietorship

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