Here's how it happens: At 17 I quit high school. It's not that I want to quit in my senior year. It's my father. He ups and leaves us flat with no notice. No notice and no money. The "us" is my Mom and my 2 little sisters. There's no means of support. No cash to pay rent. And food . And all rest.

So I take noble action. I quit high school. I go to nearest large factory. It happens to be RCA, in Camden, New Jersey. I lie about my age. They believe me. They believe me because they need people now. There's a war on. They only know they need people to do essential work. They need people now.

An electronics enthusiast, I bump myself up. Up and off assembly line in just a few weeks. I get myself assigned to Test Cage. The Test Cage is electronically isolated from rest of world. No signals can enter. No signals can leave.

I love working with CRT, various meters and alignment tools. It's a Union Shop. Did you ever work in a Union Shop? If so, you'll recognize what follows. The Shop Steward works along with everybody else. And he watches everything with object of protecting and preserving jobs.

My job is to test and align electronic equipment destined for USA Department of Defense. The Time and Motion Study folks have established 45 minutes as allowed time to complete one procedure.

After a few weeks, I figure out how to do this job in 15 minutes. And I do. Instead of turning out 12 procedures per 8 hour shift, I do 36 complete procedures. The Shop Steward has a little talk with me. I resist his recommendation that I slow down. There's a war on, I tell him.

He's not happy. So he gets 2 engineers, guys with white shirts and neatly pressed navy blue trousers, (You know type, their suits come with 2 pair of pants!) to visit me. They don't just visit. They bring their yellow legal pads. They stand behind me. They stand behind me for 2 full shifts. When one has to visit bathroom, other watched me with eagle eyes.

As you climb your ladder you will meet others on their way up or their way down. Those on way down find life to hard to handle and have gone to join easy crowd at bottom of ladder just milling around waiting for something for nothing to show up so they can grab it with minimum effort. But not you. You continue your upward climb taking those with you headed in same direction and with purpose in mind.

When is a good time to check your progress? Right now would be a good time and everyday thereafter if you are interested in maximum performance. If not, you can just lie around and let years creep up on you, and believe me, they will before you know it. But suppose that has happened. Suppose you are older now and have come to realization that you've missed boat and let life rock away and you are still on bottom rungs of ladder having made no significant progress. Is it too late? Absolutely not. You can start where you are and with what you've got even if it is nothing. You may be on bottom of heap, but you can start forward motion. All it takes is a little push. Hopefully I can provide that push for you as your personal coach and mentor. All you have to do is email me at winnow@earthlink.net and we can get ball rolling. Sure life is a tough, long haul. When I climbed Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg, Texas while in my mid and late 60's I didn't make it all way in one fell swoop. I had to stop every once in a while to catch up. Life is like that but you can make it to top just as I did. Now I teach people how to get to top. You've got to experience top before you can bring others with you.

On a scale of 1-10 where are you relative to where you should be? Where should you be at age 25, 35, 50 and older? How far should you go on this success journey? Here is a great question for you. How tall should a tree grow? And answer is, as tall as it wants to. Have you ever heard of a tree growing just half way and stopping? I haven't. Suppose tree says I don't like it where I'm at. I think I'll stop growing. I don't like climate here so I'll move to another state. But what if climate is same there? What then? What if tree says I don't like weather here? It is to hot, to cold, to wet and to dry. I'm quitting this game called life. Do you know that is exactly what people do? They complain about seasons of life when that is all they have. Sometimes you just gotta put up with where you are at in life and get on with it. Stop complaining. It doesn't help if nothing changes because of your complaints.

Now let bottom rung of ladder be minimum and top maximum. Use that for your standard of measure. You say, "I've not gone very far." "How hard have you tried?" I would ask. And you would say, "Not very hard." Then I would say, "You aren't where you should be on ladder of life because you haven't given it your all." Life demands and expects your all. You cannot take from life all time and keep expecting her to hand you everything. Pretty soon well is going to go dry and you're going to be left holding an empty bucket waiting for well to fill back up. It is time to start giving life everything you have. You're probably wondering where IT is. Well IT is on inside of you. All you have need of is on inside of you. Now you have to persuade it to come to surface and you do that by attending lectures, reading books, taking extra classes, listening to audio tapes and watching videos, all of which, should pertain to personal growth; your personal growth. And it wouldn't hurt to sit in on a few good bible lessons and sermons. Who knows what that might bring out of you? You'll never know until you try. Take initiative. Don't settle for someone else's plan for your life. YOU be a product of your own conclusion. STOP letting people sell you on plans that will not produce anything for you. By way, you would be surprised at how much you already know and it's already on inside of you. The extra time you spend on you will draw it out. You can work hard on job and make a living. You can work hard on you and make a fortune.

Let's examine your standard of measure that I mentioned earlier. It is very important to your growth. If you have no standards by which to measure progress, how will you know if you are ascending or descending? Or, how will you know if you have arrived if you don't know where you are going? The Bible says, "By your standard of measure it shall be measured to you." The word shall is a mandatory clause. It means it is going to happen just way it is spelled out. What is a standard? Here are a few definitions.

1.It is a basis for measure of value given. 2.A standard is something established for use as a rule or basis of comparison in measuring quality. 3.A standard is certain criterion set for usages or practices (moral standards) 4.It is a level of excellence, attainment etc. regarded as a measure of adequacy.