Ray,

I agree with what you said. Determination must be fed or it will fade.

Commitment, on the other hand, is settled, secure, irrevocable. Costs are no longer counted.

You’ve heard me say many times that one of our society’s most costly mistakes is this misbegotten belief that passion produces commitment. America’s high divorce rate testifies to our error.

Commitment, I believe, produces passion. I often meet people who sigh, “I just can’t find my passion.” To them I say, “Make a commitment. Fling yourself into it. Passion will make its debut soon after.”

When a commitment is fully settled in the heart, all concerns about time and money are erased; “It will take as long as it takes and it will cost what it costs.” When the objective is clear and your commitment is absolute, schedules and budgets no longer apply.

Our society admires the clever, the quick, the connected and the beautiful. We even admire the brash and the reckless. We have Hollywood to thank for that. But in my 30-year observation of American small business, it is the committed owner that is most likely to succeed. 

I continue to believe in exponential little bits: the relentless march of a colony of ants, the mathematical magic of compound interest, the ability of rain to erode a rock.

Wizard Academy exists to help committed people achieve their impossible dreams. This is not a school for gimmick mongers, multilevel marketers or twitchy little bastards.

You’ve heard it said, I’m sure, “The chicken is involved in a ham-and-eggs breakfast, but the pig is truly committed.” This is a school for the pig, not the chicken.

Committed people are outsiders in a society that is barely skin deep.

According to the most recent US Census, our nation has 5.91 million businesses with fewer than 100 employees. These people need help if our nation is to survive.

The American Dream has always been an impossible dream. God bless the travelers who follow a star, those relentless ones whose vision allows them to see past the obstacles that stand so ominously in their way.

Thank You, Ray, for the vital role you have played since 1997. Thank you for the wisdom you continue to share.

Yours,

Roy H. Williams