Chris Gardner, author of "The Pursuit of Happyness", has a terrific book out called "Start Where You Are". It's about his philosophies on life, tips for being successful, and core principles. I'm listening to the audiobook and it's great, and I especially loved the story he told about meeting Muhammad Ali and his wife Yolanda at the airport.
Chris was building a successful financial firm and the business was growing and things were looking up. Then he lost a key employee that Chris had really counted on. He was scared to lose key clients and potentially 30 to 40 percent of his business. It became so troubling that he even had visions of homelessness again. He needed to ask Ali for some wisdom to help him.
"Champ, have you ever been scared"? he asked.
"Yeah", he paused, then admitted, "I'm scared now, I've got a disease, and it has no no cure, but I'm still fighting."
That was that.
Chris immediately put his fears behind him, and gave himself a tough lecture.
"You know that thing you're scared about in New York City, get over it. It's not threatening your life, not threatening your health, and if the Champ say's "I'm fighting something with no cure", you Chris, can handle this crisis."
Chris thanked him profusely, shook his hand, and flew out and retained his clients and then some.
I highly recommend this book, it's great, and he has much more on his website.
http://www.chrisgardnermedia.com/
