I am standing on Orient Beach with my feet in the aqua blue surf, staring at the waves lapping the reef, and the ear buds to my I-pod are blasting Michael Franti and Spearhead was blasting into my brain. “That’s the sound of the sunshine coming down.”
I am thinking hard thoughts.
Having just spent my first Christmas alone I’d moved on to dreading New Year’s. Thanksgiving had been rough, Christmas was pure agony and now because of passport issues I’d be home in time for New Year’s. I wanted to continue the diversion of the tropics until I was well into 2011.
Besides that I had a tremendous number of things to accomplish when I return, it would be winter, and there is a Christmas tree full of hanging pieces of sadness that I must contend with. I will be on the road a lot and travel alone is alright but homecomings are difficult because there is no one waiting. Goddess will flip over for a belly rub but that is exciting as it gets.
Someone stands beside me and I turn to see Hyler talking to me. I pull the buds from my ears.
“What did you say?”
“I was saying that you’re not focused enough,” he replied looking at me with sadness.
He is one of the most interesting people that I’ve ever met. He used to race cars. One time he opted not to wear the fire resistant suit and sure enough had a wreck and the car burst into flames. His body is badly scared from the fire.
It doesn’t bother him. He is standing beside me on the beach working on his tan just like I am. He became a wildly successful consultant and very popular motivational speaker earning $15,000 a speech. He had told me this the previous day and when he did I exclaimed, “YOU GET $15,000 A SPEECH?”
He held his arms up to the sky and immediately answered, “With a body like this? Of course I do.”
It would very hard not to like Hyler.
“What do you mean I’m not focused enough?” I spit back.
He is always calm, speaking in very measured words. “You stand here and daydream and dance. You get lost in your own world and you don’t mind being there. You just don’t have what it takes to be a successful speaker and consultant. You should go back to doing what you’re good at.”
Competitive juices were unleashed in my veins and my chest stuck out. I turned to face him head on.
“What’s the biggest number of standing ovations you ever got,” I immediately fire.
“Three,” he begins but I stop him before he can finish.
“I got seven in front of 7000. How big was your crowd?” I rapid fire back before he can shoot.
Hyler smiles and takes a step backwards putting a shriveled hand on my shoulder. “What’s your elevator speech?” he asks as calmly and sympathetically as anyone possibly could.
“I turned a $40,000 a year homeless shelter into a $13 Million company with a very diverse portfolio. I can help you do that too. Regardless of what your business is”!
Hyler’s mouth never quite closes so his teeth are almost always visible. But when he chooses to smile you can tell. He smiled and the withered hand patted my shoulder.
“That’s pretty good,” he said, “but you’ve got to stop all of this dreaming.”
It is my turn to pause and stare a second. I think about one of the rules of speaking which is to create pregnant pauses so that the audience is waiting on whatever it is you’re going to say next. Martin Luther King, Jr. was perhaps the best at it and I’ve spent hours watching him do it though he was long dead and seated at the right hand of God when I did.
He waits. I let the moment linger.
“Hyler,” I finally say when I can see that he is getting ready to say something to break what is becoming an uncomfortable silence, ‘just how in the hell do you turn a $40,000 a year homeless shelter into a $13 Million company without …dreaming.”
He laughs.
I win.
