The Brain Maggot — How Much Damage Has Yours Done to Your Business?
Mine burrowed unnoticed under the scalp, gnawed through the skull, chomped the membrane and tunneled deep into my consciousness. It fed veraciously upon nourishing matter and healthy thoughts.
Crawling through the cells, devouring and consuming as it went. A trail of masticated flesh and detritus in its path.
I’m not alone though, there’s a plague of them. Most people have one; most don’t know it!
Mine got in when I was only nineteen and by the time I had discovered it’s intrusion, and done something about it, immeasurable damage had been done.
YOU almost certainly have one.
You probably won’t know it’s there, but if it is, you’ve got a problem … a real problem!
When I first left England many moons ago I went to work in Tenerife selling timeshare!!!
Whoooooaahh … wait … before you click away and vow never to read another word written by me again … I was young, I was just a boy who could see no future as a designer (I qualified as an Advertising Art Director actually) living in London. It was my first job and I didn’t know any better … I’m sorry!!!
I went to work abroad lured by an advert placed in a Sunday paper, which merely read:
How Would You Like to Earn £1,000 ($1,500) per Week, Working on a Beautiful Tropical Island in 300 Days of Sun?
Who wouldn’t?
I answered the ad, got the job; I packed my bags and caught the next flight out. I was gone from the smog faster than a rat up a drainpipe!
I arrived in the sun and to my surprise, all the hype was true! We were met at the airport and were immediately handed keys to company cars, we raced like maniacs to the town and were given keys to our apartments which were set around our own communal pool.
I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!
Those were great times, young, free of the grind and earning awesome money. There were several hundred of us on the island working for various companies and the stories … well that’s a script for a future movie!
After a couple of years I was head-hunted and moved on to Lanzarrotte, I was promoted to a management position and given a ridiculous, tax-free salary with a company car thrown in!
That was thirty years ago when you could buy a house for a year’s wages. I was in my prime, full of testosterone and on a mission. This was my first job and I honestly thought I would never want for anything again … ever!!!
One night I was sitting drinking with a bunch of friends and colleagues on the balcony overlooking the pool. One of the lad’s mother was visiting, had joined us for a tipple and was also enjoying the relaxed atmosphere.
Later that evening the conversation turned to astrology, horoscopes and predicting the future … one of those conversation that turned to ‘beer bollocks’ once the liqueur started flowing!
My argument was that it’s all a complete load of bull, that you could read any star sign on a given day and it would have some tortuous, convoluted relevance to your life … any life in fact!
The secret to good horoscope writing is to ensure complete ambiguity for a prediction and to ensure the advice is vague. That way, anyone reading will always find a situation that will fit their circumstances.
‘Today you’ll meet someone wearing purple’ … well blow me, if I didn’t meet someone wearing purple socks!
If they’re that bloody perceptive, why don’t they give a prediction like: ‘The FTSE will drop 100 points today, but rise 150 tomorrow, today’s a good day for laying down a few bets!’
Eventually, my friend piped up: “My mom has a gift, she can read people’s future; all she needs is something personal from you.”
Now, this lady was in her late fifties I would say, graying a little, with no particular attributes, just a regular, everyday mother.
“Is that true?” I asked.
Apparently, she had done this reading thing many times before with amazing accuracy, note the use of the word ‘apparently!’
Anyway, I was intrigued, had nothing to lose, so I gave her a ring I used to wear, one which had some sentimental value at the time.
I won’t bore you with the details, but she sat on that balcony on that cloudless, balmy night, rubbing the ring (no that’s not a sex thing!) and describing the pictures that appeared spontaneously before her eyes. She did this for around an hour.
We had never met before and no meaningful conversation about my past had taken place yet her accuracy was stunning. Clairvoyants usually ask leading questions which will steer their predictions but she had not.
She described things that at the time I didn’t recall so dismissed her ramblings. Days later I began remembering the events that she had recited. She’d mentioned a name that wasn’t quite right, she’d said Coxon. At the time this meant nothing to me and it wasn’t until a couple of days later it clicked. The person who had given me the ring some years previously was named Poxon.
How in the reign of Spotted Dick would she have known that???
She demonstrated incredible insight … BUT … the wicked, evil, sorceress also planted my maggot.
That night she said something to me; something that drove so deep. A single passing comment that would have a profound affect on my life for many years. In just one breath, in a single moment, she introduced the maggot into my brain.
A flippant couple of words that floated on the cool sea air and meant nothing to her … it almost crippled me! Here is that sentence in all its infamous glory:
“You will always be comfortable — but you will never be a millionaire.”
That’s all she said!
A simple sentence that would eat away at me for years.
Here lay the contradiction, she was so right with everything else she had said, extraordinary accuracy, that if she knew what she did about the past, why couldn’t she be as precise about the future?
Before she said those heinous words, I had been convinced that I would retire by the time I was thirty. I thought I was going to lead a jet-set life enjoying all the trappings wealth could bring. I felt I was well on my way already.
It wasn’t to be!!!
A few months later the company I was working for closed down and eventually the money dried up. That was it, I was never to earn good money again until I had dealt with ‘The Maggot’.
From that day forth, every time things did not go well, I would console myself by saying: “That’s the way it’s meant to be; it’s my destiny.” Therefore, that’s the way it always was!
I could not break free of the tethers that hold back success because that woman had convinced me I never would. I got so twisted up inside. I knew I ought to be successful; I knew I had the desire, the ambition, the drive, but “why should I bother?” The good things were never going to come my way … and The Maggot was chewing up and spitting out any logical arguments to the contrary.
It got so bad at one point I convinced myself that I was possessed by badness and even considered getting exorcised by the local preacher! A relative had me believing for a while back then, that it does happen; evil spirits can occupy a living body … and I was well and truly squatted!
I had assured myself ‘bad luck’ was my bedfellow and it got me extremely down and miserable at times.
On a conscious level I wanted everything money could buy, but deep down believed with unequivocal certainty … ‘I would never be a millionaire!’
It’s not what that woman said which held me back, it was how I interpreted it. Once I understood that it was not destiny, which was holding me back, but my own attitude to circumstance, the change in me was significant and immediate.
That very moment things started to change. I instantly stopped blaming my failures on outside forces because I now realised they had absolutely nothing to do with my success. What I learned was that I can’t blame my shortcomings on anything, or anyone except myself and especially a few words slurred on a drunken evening.
It’s easy to give in to The Maggot and fall short … but it is an outside influence; a third party — it’s looking beyond for somewhere to place the blame for your failures.
The plain truth is, that once you’ve discovered The Maggot and exorcised it; then what is there left to blame?
I’m now growing my new business http://smartconnectqr.com
Did you have a brain maggot and how did you deal with it?
Has this article promoted you to take a look for a brain maggot?