How to Know When You've Made It

How do you know when you've made it?

How do you know when you've achieved success?

I'm not sure any of us have a true benchmark inside ourselves, as we all keep wanting more.

I want more, too, but I'm doing something tonight that is making me realize I have truly arrived in the world.

What I'm doing is more important to me than all of my books.

Or being on Larry King.

Or being in the movie The Secret.

Or buying Francine, my 2005 Panoz Esperante GTLM luxury sports car.

Well, maybe what I'm doing tonight isn't really better than Francine, but you get the idea.

So what am I doing tonight?

I've hired one of my favorite musicians to play a private concert in my home.

I'm a big fan of Michelle Malone, an Atlanta rock-folk singer with passion. I've never seen her perform or ever spoken to her. But I buy all her CD's and more. I'm a fan.

When I learned she was playing concerts in Texas, I wrote her office and asked about a private show in my home. Michelle emailed back, gave me a price, and I agreed to it.

And now she's playing here tonight for me and a handful of select friends.

To put this in perspective, I recall being at a friend's house about thirty years ago. I was broke. He needed to buy a tape player to hear a talk his wife gave the night before. He went out and bought it. The recorder cost maybe fifty bucks. To me, what he did was what I wanted to be able to do: write a check for fifty bucks for something I wanted. That would have been "making it" for me at that time in my life.

Today, being able to hire my favorite musician to play in my living room is a sign I've made it in the world.

I still want more, though.

As a friend in Maui says, "I'm totally satsified, I just want more!"

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS - Reminder: The Larry King Live show on how to change your life by changing your mind will air Nov 2 and Nov 16th. I'm on the second one. Watch both. It airs on CNN. It also airs on CNN International. Tell the world.