The Lion and the Gazelle, Spit and Shoe Polish

This is from, “The Lion and the Gazelle”


African Proverb

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle awakens. He has only one thought on his mind: To be able to run faster than the fastest lion. If he cannot, then he will be eaten.
Every morning in Africa a lion awakens. He has only one thought on his mind: To be able to run faster than the slowest gazelle. If he cannot, he will die of hunger.
Whether you choose to be a gazelle or a lion is of no consequence. It is enough to know that with the rising of the sun, you must run. And you must run faster than you did yesterday or you will die.This is the race of life."
- African Proverb

This is on my wall facing my desk beside my window attached to a picture of a great large, cat. This is my paraphrase:
“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up
And knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion
Or it will be killed and eaten
Also every morning in Africa a lion wakes up
And knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle
Or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle..
When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

So that’s the basis of Monday Morning Marketing. Every Monday Morning, first of all start your day by thanking God for another day in a free country based on free enterprise and for another day to be in the hunt. Lion or Gazelle makes no difference you still have an opportunity to dominate and YOU WILL.

Years ago when I was a very young entertainment agent, an old man who had been in the business since Vaudeville, also an entertainment agent and would be competititor except that he was somewhere around 90 and tired and basically doing his business as a hobby, gave me some advice. He said, “You know show business is 98% attitude and 2% spit and shoe polish.” This is a lesson I have repeated to many mentees over the years about business and life as well as entertainment.

So join me every Monday Morning at 9 AM and You work on your attitude, I will bring the spit and shoe polish.
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2007