Art Williams – Do It!
Art Williams is a business man and entrepreneur who founded A.L. Williams in 1977. A.L. Williams led the early charge in promoting Term Life Insurance and coined the phrase, “Buy Term and Invest the Difference”. His company grew to become one of the largest corporations in America, with over a billion dollars in revenue, in the 1980’s. They had over 100,000 insurance agents working for them. In 1989, Art sold A.L. Williams to Primerica Corporation for $90 Million. Needless to say, he’s a big deal!
So, he gave this talk in 1987… The last time our country was in a really difficult financial position. It’s CRAZY to read this with that in mind. So, this week, I’ll post the entire WRITTEN speech (over a couple of posts) and at the end of the week, I’ll post the video. You’ve gotta read it first, to get what he’s saying, but then listen to it, in his “Language”, and you’ll be sold. I literally listen to this speech at least once a week, for some crazy encouragement!
“I was asked to talk to you about how to win in business. I think it’s a good subject for you to think about because I believe business in America is in a crisis situation today. All you have to do is read the paper and ever month see our trade deficit and it’s just a very depressing situation. To speak to you about how to win in business, there’s a lot of obvious things I could talk about. You first have to find a need, you’ve gotta fill a need for a consumer out there, you’ve got to have a market; you’ve gotta have someone to sell your product or service to. If you really wanna get big and win big you’ve gotta have a uniqueness; there’s gotta be something a little bit different about you than all the competition out there. But, by far, the most important thing you’ve got to have to win in business in these United States today, is a very unique kind of mental toughness. I believe the difference in winning and losing in the free enterprise system is so small it’s almost too scary to talk about. You can do 99% of the things right in business and yet if you don’t possess what I call that “winning edge” (that mental toughness) folks, it’s impossible to win. I believe that thinking in corporate America has been screwed up over these last 20 – 25 years. And, I believe that screwed up kinda thinking started in these liberal universities today. I believe a college degree in business, from most universities today, is not worth the paper it’s written on. (I just had a son graduate from the University of Georgia, a few months ago.) The reason I think that is because most of these professors and most of these universities today haven’t got enough common sense to get in out of the rain. They don’t have any idea what it takes to win out there in the real world. They deal in a bunch of theory! These people have tried to fill up corporate America with this kind of thinking. “These are the special people.” If you’re born rich; if you’re born on the right side of the tracks, they rule you the privileged class in America. If you’re born poor, from an average ordinary background, like I came from, they say you’re supposed to give up all your big dreams and all your big ambitions and all your big hope. If you have a high IQ they rule you brilliant. If you have an average IQ, like me, they say you ought a drive a truck or be a janitor. Well, BULL! That aint the way it is and that aint the way it ever was! They aint nobody that ever designed a test, nor will they design a test, that can measure the heart of a man or a women. The things that are unique to winning in business in America today are outside of artificial things like IQ, College board scores, college degrees and stuff like that. The key to winning in these United States is what’s inside a person! It’s your integrity! It’s your people abilities! It’s your character! I believe in developing this winning edge. I’ve got 10 or 12 points that I won’t be able to go over with you tonight, but let me just give you a flavor of what I think you’ve gotta do to succeed in these United States today.”
Art Williams – 1987
In recording tithes and offerings for churches (I’m a bookkeeper), I’ve started to ponder the whole giving electronically thing (or e-tithing). I thought I’d bring the discussion to the Ps20 world in hopes that some pastor or wise lay man or woman could settle the issue and I can go on my merry way.