Harry Potter and the passage of time

I remember when I first heard about Harry Potter. Goblet of Fire was opening and new morning shows across the country were interviewing people waiting in line to get a copy of the book from their favorite bookseller.

I saw the protests from concerned parents promoting witchcraft and I saw the interview with JK Rowling stating that all children want to believe somewhere in their heart that they are special and that’s what Harry Potter is all about.

I certainly wanted to believe that about myself as a child, that I was special. Listening to JK Rowling’s explanation, I was hooked. I would eventually buy all 4 books and read them in a weekend. I would also listen to Jim Dale’s interpretation of the American novels. I was online when the first Harry Potter movie came out.

I eagerly awaited the release of book 5, and realizing that I would be away on business for book 6, I arranged for a friend to take me to an all-night bookstore while I was away.

I knew it would be a 2 year wait for book 7 and I was not disappointed. And here’s the problem… the two years have come and gone. There are 3 days left until the launch of book 7. Time has passed and it has led me inexorably to the date. Whether he was waiting for Harry Potter or not, time would have passed. Given the alternative, isn’t that what we pray for… the passage of time?

In fact, we literally bet on it. Many of life’s decisions are postponed until the moment is better. We put off saving for our children’s college education until the timing is better, but kids move on and grow anyway and too often we tell them we’re sorry, we tried, but the timing was never right. We put off saving for our own retirement until the time is right and then our 50th birthday passes and we realize it’s only 15 years away, we still put off planning waiting for the perfect moment or we panic and decide to start a home. business based but the time is not right for that either and we put that off until the time is right and we can better manage our schedules or we have the time but we can’t balance the start up costs because while we had the time we never put the money away .

Some people would say that “if I had the money, I wouldn’t need a home business.” It sounds logical but not entirely true. There are many reasons for having a home-based business, the main one seems to be time: the desire, the need to shape time to your purposes in a way that the structure of a job does not. I spoke to a gentleman the other day who couldn’t join my business because he took a “1000 dollar hit”, to use his words, earlier in the day. A former Chrysler employee, he took an ill-suited severance package and took a series of jobs that didn’t suit his skill set as he sought leverage in a home-based business. He was thinking when we talked, “man, how long are you willing to be vulnerable to the $1000 hit?” Then I remembered that 10 years ago I was vulnerable to the $200 hit! Ten years ago, living like this became unacceptable for me. I, too, had succumbed to the mind-numbing mantra, “when I make more money, when things get better.” I then realized that I was not going to earn more than I did and was in serious danger of losing what I had.

Unconsciously, I took advantage of one of the Laws of Success… the Law of Leverage. I had nothing in the bank, so I had no accounts to draw money from, and I had learned to rely on the wrong kind of leverage, reverse consumer credit leverage.

I learned to take advantage of something else: other people’s knowledge and information. I learned my way by paying off tens of thousands of dollars of debt as I went along and, no, the timing was never perfect. Things happened that challenged my progress. Over time, however, the money began to flow. It flowed because I had come across another critical Success Principle, The Law of Attraction.

When I think back to the way I lived my life a decade ago, I suppose I could have waited and insisted that the time was right or that I knew everything before I started, but success demands action so that “even what you have is taken.” “. away.” Matthew 25:29

As an entrepreneur myself, I too have a desire to shape time to suit my purposes and have had to get comfortable with the idea that my ducks may not all be in line before I act. As I begin the final countdown to the fate of the boy wizard, Harry Potter, I think of other steps I need to take to move my business forward. I think about the key lesson about time that JK Rowling and the young hero of her taught me.

Are you taking advantage of every opportunity that time gives you or are you waiting for the perfect moment? Sixteen time and keep going because while time is never perfect, it does pass.