e-dreaming

I'm a big fan of Zig ZIglar.  For those who may not be familiar with Zig, he's one of the world's most effective motivational speakers and sales guru.  And Zig is a legendary story-teller.

One of Zig's most compelling stories is of a couple friends of his driving across the country, who found themselves in need of refreshment when they came across an old-fashioned water pump along the side of the road.  While telling this story, Zig usually has a chrome water pump on stage with him, so it leaves little to the imagination as he demonstrates how to operate a pump.  But since most of you have probably seen one, I'll just say that you have to grab the handle of one of these metal beasts, and pump it up and down until the water comes from the deep recesses of the water well and out the spout.  It can take a lot of pumping sometimes to get the water up, especially if the well is deep.

I won't recount the entire story (and I suspect a bunch of you have heard the story anyway), but the jist of the story is that one of the two men grabbed the handle and started pumping.  After quite a while, the fellow tired out, and let go of the handle, at which point his friend screamed "No!  Don't stop!  If you do, all of that hard work will go to waste.  Keep pumping!" 

30dps has been in business for over 21 years.  We've had good times, and we've had no-so-good times.  In fact, in 2001 after the dot-com crash, the tech bubble burst, and 9/11, we had some VERY tough years.  But through it all, we kept cranking on that handle... even when it seemed certain that the well had done gone dry. 

Now a bunch of folks (many smarter than me) could make a strong argument that we should have just closed the doors, and possibly tried again with another entrepreneurial idea, if so disposed.  But, being the stubborn type, and having Zig's "No!  Don't stop!  Keep pumping!" ringing in my ears, the course seemed clear.

Times are tough.  They may even get tougher.  But the cool waters of success rarely come easy.  So... we're gonna keep on pumpin' with the firm conviction that the reward for all that effort is worth it.  Oh, and feel free to come by for a refreshing drink, anytime!