Monday Morning Match is a short post - maybe a quote, inspirational story or idea - intended to spark some motivation inside each of you so your week gets off to a fantastic start on Monday morning. It's been a while since I'd watched my favorite movie from start to finish, so this weekend, I sat down and popped in The Shawshank Redemption. I'm sure that many of you have seen the movie and if you're like me, you've been channel surfing, clicked on the movie and ended up watching the rest, regardless of how far into the movie (or close to the end) it was when you landed on it.
Am I right?
I'm not going to give away any of the plot of the story for those of you who may not have seen the movie other than to say it is a prison movie that was adapted off of a Stephen King story. It is anything but a horror genre flick but then neither was another great movie by Stephen "King of Scary Books" King - Stand By Me.
One of the central stories in The Shawshank Redemption is the friendship that is forged between Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) and Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman). Each actor masterfully plays his role, making everyone watching wish they had a friend as smart as Andy and a friend as caring, loyal and helpful as Red.
More than anything, it's a story about determination and hope. Red starts the discussion about hope when he says, "Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."
Now I often hear people say "hope is not a strategy" when it comes to success in real estate (or life) and I agree. Hope should never be your only strategy for success. A business plan with goals and a clear outline of specific actions you will take to achieve those goals is certainly a requirement but I think you'd agree with me that trying to live without hope is a pretty difficulty thing.
I'm not going to give away any of the plot of the story for those of you who may not have seen the movie other than to say it is a prison movie that was adapted off of a Stephen King story. It is anything but a horror genre flick but then neither was another great movie by Stephen "King of Scary Books" King - Stand By Me.
One of the central stories in The Shawshank Redemption is the friendship that is forged between Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) and Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman). Each actor masterfully plays his role, making everyone watching wish they had a friend as smart as Andy and a friend as caring, loyal and helpful as Red.
More than anything, it's a story about determination and hope. Red starts the discussion about hope when he says, "Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."
Now I often hear people say "hope is not a strategy" when it comes to success in real estate (or life) and I agree. Hope should never be your only strategy for success. A business plan with goals and a clear outline of specific actions you will take to achieve those goals is certainly a requirement but I think you'd agree with me that trying to live without hope is a pretty difficulty thing.
Hope can be a "dangerous thing," as Red says. And sure, hope should not be your sole strategy. But it was what Andy says to Red towards the end of the movie, as a means to encourage Red to fulfill his end of their promise made to each other inside the walls of Shawshank that just might apply to you and your business this week,this month and this year...
"Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies."
I'll let you decide what you will do this week. But you might want to listen to Red...
"Either get busy living...or get busy dying"
And until then, I hope you'll build relationships...solve problems... and have fun
Click here to see the theatre trailer for The Shawshank Redemption
