You’ve got so many ideas

Brilliant, shiny, dreamy, fresh ones / Issue 1,170

Oh, hi friends! 

I knew someone who had a lot of ideas. Ideas for products, businesses, novels and songs, characters and money-making endeavors.

Every time they brought up one of these ideas, I said it sounded great.

The world needs that tomorrow! When will you do it?

Soon, soon, they said.

The next day, they had another new idea. 

The world needs that one, too! When can I see it?

Soon, soon, they said. Just wait.

So I waited. And day after day I heard about another new idea. 

Brilliant, shiny, dreamy, fresh ideas.

But after awhile, I stopped listening.

I could not judge these ideas, or use them, or experience them.

More time passed, and my friend stopped sharing their ideas.

Not because they didn’t have them. They had plenty. They were floating around like clouds in the sky.

But they couldn’t actually hold them. 

Neither could I — or anyone else.

I once knew someone who had a lot of ideas. 

I wish they would choose one to make real.

“Success demands singleness of purpose.

You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.”

From The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth about Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan.

Meet My Local Pharmacist, Ivan

“Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Jourdain knew from an early age he wanted to be a pharmacist. He got his first chemistry set when he was seven, a treasured gift from his mother’s sister, his Aunt Justina, who was a pharmacist in Santo Domingo. He saw how appreciated she was by the community, how much she helped people.

‘I just looked up to her so much. She was my role model,’ he said. ‘I wanted to be like her.’

She never made much money, but she was satisfied with what she did. She was happy. Not like some of his other relatives—the engineers, architects, doctors, and lawyers.

‘They were all very unhappy. But my aunt? Very happy. So I said, wow. Happiness seems to be where it’s at.’ …

‘As it is, I come in in the morning, I open up the store, I put in my 10 or 12 hours. And I never regret a day putting the key through the door. The day just flies by. Because I’ve been here so long, I know everybody by name. They know me by name. It’s not really a job.’

Ivan has been working around the Upper West Side for more than 50 years.

And what a line: I never regret a day putting the key through the door.

An inspiration to us all!!! (West Side Rag)