Tony Williamson

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. -

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The vast majority of persons in this world are living from a small fraction of their true potential - the innate ability to achieve greatness. If you look around you, five per cent of persons are leaders. They stand out. They cut a new path. They have a vision, they influence the way people think, they rise to the top of their chosen fields. Ninety five per cent of people are followers, marching to the rhythmic beat of the status quo. They do not cause things to happen; they sit by and watch things happen. In fact, some even do not know what happens! The popular colloquialism, "Nutten na gwan fi mi", expresses a deep symptom of a lost generation, hopeless recipients of time's vicissitudes, submissive victims of life's turbulent seas, tossed about like flotsam and jetsam, without purpose, without passion, without pursuit. Are you one of these, living from hand to mouth, from pay cheque to pay cheque, waiting on that elusive promotion that never seems to come, waiting on that 'break'? These are the people in the 95 per cent. They are followers, but more sadly, they are completely ignorant of the power within them, for if they understood what Ralph Waldo Emerson meant, they would change their circumstances, make a 180 degree turn in life and rise to fabulous success, wealth, prosperity and fulfillment.

A power within

For the last 37 years, I have studied the lives of successful men and women. I have interviewed them, watched them fall and rise again, heard their stories, seen them fulfill their dreams, watched them as they overcame deep sorrow and shattering adversity, only to rise again like the Phoenix from the ashes of temporary defeat. What is it that they have that we do not? Are they more learned than we? No, for the world is full of educated derelicts. What they have is what we all have, a power within, a force so great it caused Napoleon to smash his enemies and create an empire. It caused the boy whose feet were so badly burnt they said he would never walk again, to become a world class athlete. It caused the great Ludwig van Beethoven to create the breathtaking, majestic 'Ninth Symphony', which greeted the world on May 7, 1874. What was remarkable about this great symphony is that Beethoven was stone deaf by the time he finished composing it and could not hear a note of his Magnum Opus, a work which is said to have had perhaps the greatest impact on Western music. At the conclusion of the opening concert in Vienna, Beethoven remained unaware of the audience's thunderous applause until alto soloist Caroline Unger turned him around to face the hall. Nor is blindness a barrier, for John Milton wrote Paradise Lost while totally blind and Ray Charles went blind at age six, only to rise to legendary fame.

What is it?

What is the power within Portia Simpson Miller that caused her to rise, as she put it, "from the bowels of the working class", to the pinnacle of state power, smashing through the testosterone-charged barriers of male political dominance to become the first female prime minister of Jamaica?

Was it some divine spark within Joan Duncan, creating the vision of a uniquely-tantalizing 'unconditional love' for Jamaica Money Market Brokers?

How did Muhammad 'Cassius Clay' Ali, a stripling of a youngster, defeat the 'unbeatable' Sonny Liston? How has Tiger Woods swept aside the history of black non-involvement in American golf to now bestride the sport like a Colossus?

And what was within Danny Williams, who started at an early age to sell cigarettes and newspapers, that made him become arguably, the greatest life insurance man of my generation? What led him to create Life of Jamaica, when all the overseas companies were packing up and running like Asafa Powell from Jamaica's political climate of the '70s? You will learn their secrets and the secrets of other great men and women as you read these weekly articles, for they will show you unmistakably how to unleash the power within you, for what lies behind you and what lies before you are indeed small matters compared to what lies within you.

Tony Williamson is an international motivational speaker, sales trainer, author and lifestyle consultant. He can be contacted at: tonywilliamson_57@yahoo.com.