Wow, what a day Tuesday turned out to be.

I had the privilege of meeting the company president for Metalast in Minden Nevada, Listened to a speaker on personal branding and the use of social media Bret L Simmons, and was able to help a friend start the promotion of  her new book, Janie Johnson, Don’t take my Lemonade Stand.

What do these three have to do with anything you might ask? Well as I prepared for bed last night it just caught my attention that I was in the presence of three great people who no longer live with in the boundaries of other people. There are trailblazers, and they are making their own destiny, with passion, hard work and just a little bit of crazy.

These three individuals encapsulate the very visions of what I often am seeking on days that I just want to be in control. They have had a dream and a vision which is not uncommon through out society, except that they acted on this dream and made it a reality.

Another common trait I see in these leaders is that they stepped out from the norm and did something a little different. 

At Metalast they started so far down the food chain in the competitive world of Chemical engineering and metal corrosion that most in the industry would have never given the time of day. So what did they do?  They went to the end consumer and created demand by using a 40 foot moving lab with a big dinosaur painted on the side, and went door to door sort of speak to introduce their products possibilities and solutions to the end consumer. The end consumer then demanded that their suppliers use this company… Brilliant.

Bret Simmons saw the power of such tools as Twitter and Facebook in today’s marketplace and started to envision a future of content generation and powerful networks of people which did business together and started to help others by teaching them how to brand themselves professionally and to become a content leader on the new management and marketing edge of the planet.

Janie Johnson is the mother of four awesome young men. She is a typical mom of boys and can be scene and numerous practice facilities nightly as she takes her boys to events, practices and social gatherings. AS her sons started to age and the political culture of our country continued to change Janie wondered how she was going to teach her children the choices they had in politics without forcing them to follow her own views. She realized there was a need for  a book that help parents discuss and teach their children the American ways so that we were raising the next generation of leaders based on the values of America and not just on what they heard form the media.

 I must confess my initial jealousy of each of these three leaders. They to me embody the complete American experience of Freedom and self fulfillment.

 As I consider my lessons and think of how I or other business professionals can follow their lead, I am reminded of maybe on of the simplest rules in life. ACT NOW!

In one of my favorite all time books “The greatest salesperson in the world” by OG Mandino, it is written:

“My dreams are worthless,

my plans are dust,

my goals are impossible.

All are of no value unless they are followed by action.

I will act now.”