Obama, passion and achieving your goal

Last night I watched the re-run of President Barack Obama’s address in Iowa City about health care reform in the USA.

Why did I want to watch? Having read both Hillary and Bill Clinton’s autobiographies over the years, I knew what a very thorny subject this has been in America, so I was interested when I heard that Congress had passed a bill — something both the Clintons and many other presidents had tried and failed to do.
You can see his speech here, it’s about 20 minutes, and really worth listening to simply for the experience of listening to a great orator, even if nothing else.

But what relevance has this to a s/e person or a small business owner? Well, the main thing that came across for me was his determination. He did not give up in the face of apparently overwhelming odds; he acknowledged the input previous presidents had made; he was quite specific about the fact that while some changes would be put into effect immediately, it would take about 4 years for all the amendments to be commonplace throughout America.

Why is this important to you? Because this gritty determination is exactly what it often takes in a small business to get to where you are going. It takes a clear focus on what you want and where you are going; it takes a team of people usually to help you get there (even your partner or babysitter is part of your team); it takes utter resolve in the face of sometimes overwhelming odds to stay your course and not get deflected by obstacles that sometimes seem to have been put there just to cause trouble!

Listen to this speech from this perspective; renew your resolve to your journey, and use his passion to remind you of yours, which is what ultimately is the thing that will carry you forward when times are tough.