Today Laurie Grenier from QVC and Shark Tank was on CBS this morning. When asked how she started her business and grew it into what it is today, she painted a great picture. She said, ” It’s like an elevator – there’s no shortcut to the penthouse. You have to stop on every floor.” This was great for me for two reasons: 1) I’m a visual learner and 2) I’m always looking for the shortest distance from A to Z. In some ways that’s a good trait, but the most important things in life are hard to come by and riding the elevator to the top does necessitate stopping on each and every floor.
My visual depicts a glass elevator with about 24 floors. Each floor has boxes on one side that need to be opened, gone through, and moved to the other side. The first few floors have a ton of boxes, the middle floors not so much, but the last few floors, just under the penthouse, have the most boxes and will require extensive stays on each one. The penthouse contains the prize. (Eye on the prize as the saying goes.)
Before you can even press the button to enter the elevator, you have to identify the prize, whether it be a work or career goal, a relationship goal, or even a personal development or self-improvement goal. You have to want it really bad in order to be willing to spend time on each of the 24 floors moving those boxes, sweating, fighting feelings of wanting to give up, etc. It ain’t easy. It never was meant to be. There are gifts and lessons hidden in each box and you need to spend time opening each one and repositioning it. To skip even one box would be to move to a new floor without vital information needed to be successful there.
The middle floors contain fewer boxes. This is for encouragement, because the floors just below the penthouse present the biggest challenge. Hard things usually get worse, and even harder, before they get better.
Don’t despair if it feels like you’re never getting off of the floor you’re on. If the prize in that penthouse is worth it to you, just keep opening and shlepping those boxes. The view from above will be magnificent.
And so, as another day goes by, enjoy the ride, work hard and learn on every floor, remember there are no shortcuts to the top, and, eventually, enjoy the view, and …..I have written.
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