In 1992, after several years of struggle with a project against major business and personal barriers, I was told to give up and that it couldn’t be done. They were right. They were right because I believed them and I gave up!

Several years later, one evening I called all the operators of a franchise that myself and another business man had established, to a marketing meeting. As the twelve franchise operators arrived at the boardroom, shoulders slumped and heads down, I sat them down around the table. The topic of conversation amongst them was on how well they were NOT doing. These men were an assortment of working men from different backgrounds, but all were just that – workers. They were not like me or others like me, people who have set out to DO SOMETHING.

I handed out pens and a blank sheet of paper to them all. Standing at the head of the table, I asked them to write all the things they could think of that they either liked about me, or thought I was good at. After a few minutes when they had stopped writing, I gathered up the sheets of paper and still standing, read out loud all their comments.

I then handed out another sheet of paper to them. This time I asked them to write all the things that they didn’t like about me, or thought were my weaknesses. They were reluctant, as some of them most likely thought I would take offence and hold it against them. I assured them it wouldn’t be taken personally. They didn’t I’m glad to say, have many things that they could think of to write. Again when they had finished I collected the papers. Again standing at the head of the table, without even looking down at the papers, I tore them into pieces, while looking at their faces, and threw the pieces over my shoulder onto the floor. They all complained that I was happy to read all the good things, but not prepared to accept the bad. I said………. I won’t accept negatives or that something CAN’T be done.

I handed out a third piece of paper and said to them that, that was tomorrow. Tomorrow as with every day was a blank piece of paper. You and only you can decide what to write on it. It’s your piece of paper and it’s your tomorrow and no one other than you can decide what to write on it, or what to do. You can say…. today I will succeed, or you can say……. today I will fail. It’s up to you.

Lately I have been hearing the same that I heard in 1992. It can’t be done – give up! You can’t make the Greenhouse Neutral Foundation a success. Others don’t want to accept that they need to alter their ways and be contributors to a better future for everyone. Others don’t want to help the Foundation or contribute funds and assistance to keep it going and become a force in environmental education. Yesterday I was listening to them. Yesterday as in 1992, I would allow them to be right. I can’t succeed.

Today I took a piece of paper and wrote on it; “I have been told NO I CAN’T for the last time, because ….Yes ……I …..Can”. I have stuck that piece of paper to the wall in front of me as I sit here at the desk. I am defiant that YES I CAN & YES I WILL.

Several years ago for my 50th birthday, my brother-in-law gave me a framed quotation by Theodore Roosevelt entitled The Credit. He had added at the base of the frame the inscription “Happy 50th birthday to Willis. – ‘The Gladiator’, win, lose, or draw, always in the arena.”

The Credit reads like this.

It is not the critic who counts;
nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled;
or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena;
whose faces are marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strive valiantly;
who err and fall short again and again;
who know the great enthusiasms;
the great devotions;
and spend themselves in a worthy cause;
who at the best know in the end the triumph of high achievement;
and who at worst, if they fail,
at least fail while daring greatly;
so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat.

SO ……….YES…….I……….CAN!

& THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF MANY ‘WE WON’T BACK DOWN’

TELL IT HOW IT IS TOM- ‘WE WON’T BACK DOWN’!

But now more than ever we need you to join us-

If you can help by donating a dollar or two, the price of a cup of coffee, or a fast food meal, to our essential voice for change, it will continue, because YES WE MUST! Because ‘WE CAN’T BACK DOWN‘

Will you help us? – Click this link and be an essential supporter of the Foundations Vision

We will post a tribute wall to the bloodied battered warriors, always in the ‘Arena’ soon. Those who dug the trenches and defended them but WOULDN’T AND WON’T BACK DOWN because YES WE WILL!

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