There are lots of things going on in the world that call for our attention. With all that are going on it can become very easy to give up on life, your dream and your future. But with the turmoil in the world, I just want to encourage you to not give up on your dreams and to take a leap of faith.
Take a leap of faith into a new career, go back to school, or start your own business. Do not be concerned about the world coming to an end, because even if the world does come to an end Jesus has promised that you will spend eternality with him. While you are still here, he said you should occupy till he comes. (See Luke 19:13) Occupy simply means keep working until I come. Do not stop pursuing your goals or your dreams. As long as you are still alive, He has a plan for you.
Mike Kelly lives in paradise and owns several companies under the umbrella of Beach Activities of Maui. With only a year of College under his belt (he never did return to get his degree), Mike left Vegas at the age of 19 for the islands of Hawaii and ended up selling suntan lotion by the pool at a hotel in Maui.
From these humbling beginnings, Mike went on to create a company with 175 employees and over $ 5 million in annual revenues that provides catamaran and scuba diving excursions for tourists, plus concierge services and business centers for many of the island’s hotels.
Mike credit much of his success to always being willing to take a leap when needed. When beach activities of Maui was attempting to expand its business, there was an important hotel whose business he wanted, but a competitor had held the contract for over 15 years.
To maintain a competitive edge, Mike always reads the trade journals and keeps an ear open to what is happening in his business. One day he read that this hotel was changing general managers, and the new general manager who would be coming in lived in copper mountain, Colorado.
This got Mike thinking because it’s so hard to get through all of the gatekeepers to secure a meeting with a general manager, maybe he should try to contact him before he actually moved to Hawaii. Mike wrestled with what would be the best way to contact him. Should he write a letter? Should he call him on the phone? As he pondered the questions his friend suggested, why don’t you just hop on a plane and go see him?
Always one to take action and take it now, Mike quickly put to gather a pro forma and a proposal and hopped on the plane the next night. After flying all night, he arrived at Colorado, rented a car, and drove 2 hours out to Copper Mountain, showing up unannounced at the new general manager’s office.
Mike explained who he was, congratulated the general manager on his new promotion, told him that he looked forward to having him in Maui, and asked for a new moments to tell him about Beach activities in Maui and what it could do for his hotel.
Mike didn’t get the contract during the first meeting. But the fact that a young kid was so confident in himself and his business that he would take a leap of faith, jump on a plane, fly all the way to Denver then drive out into middle of Colorado on the off chance that he would be able to meet in person left such a huge impression on the general manager that, when he did finally get to Hawaii, he awarded Mike the contract, which was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mike’s bottom line over the ensuing 15 years.
