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My grandaddy, who ran a plumbing shop, used to say, “There are lots of reasons you think you can’t, but not one of them is real. Not one.”

Grandaddy may have been a country boy from south Georgia with only a third-grade education, but that never seemed to slow him down. For instance, I recall that in his late fifties he still remembered all the states and their capitols. He could tell you every US president and when he served (as well as interesting little stories about things each one achieved).

He could look at an electrical, plumbing or bricklaying job and tell you exactly what needed to be done and in what order. Because he had started, built up and sold businesses in each of those fields.

And he could add a long column of figures in his head faster than you or I could do it on paper. Usually more accurately, too.

So my grandaddy, a man who was sure he could, and who ran into people every day who thought the opposite about themselves, knew something about self-belief.

I remember he once told one of his men, “While you’re fartin’ around worryin’ about whether this maybe can’t be done, you could just go on and do it.”

After one of these comments, he’d usually add something like: “Obstacles aren’t blocks. They’re wide-open invites to new workarounds. You can clear a road for the next man to follow.” (Maybe not his exact words, but you get the gist of it.)

Remember the phrase, “what you see is what you get?”

Well it’s true. When you look at the path ahead of you, whatever you see standing in front of you, roadblock or wide open gate, that’s what life will hand you.

Who says the Universe doesn’t have a sense of humor?

Cheers from sunny Japan,
Charles