This post goes along with the one about "Eliminating the Complainer". This one deals with the "Can't Virus". I will say right now that I hate that virus, and the things it spawns. I got into an arguement with a very dear friend recently that I wish would not have happened because what he was doing was spreading the virus.
The only way to cure the virus is to not accept "Can't". Anything is possible and nothing "cannot be done". It may not be legal, or easy, or logical, or whatever, but it certainly is not "impossible".
I want to tell you a story about a man named Elio Suarez...my dad. He was the son of a rich landonwer in Cuba. His father, my grand father owned a cattle ranch, an accompanying dairy as well as some tobacco plantations. But was a very demanding man and it was clear that although my family had a great deal of money, nobody was going to get anything for free.
My dad realized he had to make it on his own. He looked around at his resources. He saw that there were undesirable weeds and plants in a neighboring planter's fields. He offered to clear the field if he could keep what he cleared. Then using some money he had saved up, he bought a herd of pigs and fed them the vast vegeation. He fattened them up and sold the meat to a local butcher.
With that money he bought a motorcycle and worked up a deal with my grandfather where he would buy milk from the dairy on credit, deliver it to town on his motorcycle, and then split the profit with my grandfather.
Soon the motorcycle turned into a truck and then into several trucks. Then my dad revolutionized the dairy business in Cuba by bringing in a sort of ISO for milk, certifying its purity. Very freaking advanced and technological for the 1930s. At one point, he had milk delivery and sales for the entire island.
That lead to other opportunities and he began to invest in real estate. He bought several plots of land in downtown Havana, and invested in various connected businesses.
Then one day a group of communists walked in and said, "get the f*** out...all of this is ours now". Cuba had just traded one pro-capitalist dictator for a communist dicator. This after a lengthy revolution with the death of brothers and uncles, and an outright betrayal by the US Government at a little seaside resort known as the Bay of Pigs.
Suddenly broke, and with no prospects, yet with a wife and small family, my dad again took stock and looked for spaces between the raindrops.
He got involved in the Black Market, eventually becoming a sizeable player. He sold anything of value, for cash, in total disregard for Cuban laws. God, family and tribe were his only loyalties as his country had abandoned him. He was arrested a few times, bribed his way out always, and often left a scene steps ahead of the Secret Police, or Citizens Militia (a group of armed and sanctioned collaborators).
He was not a rich man anymore, but his belly and those of the people important to him, were full, we all had a place to sleep and the hope born of defiance.
Eventually he managed to get the family out to the USA. Again, with nothing in his pockets. He looked for opportunities and found a job in Los Angeles. He worked as a meat packer in L.A., midnight shift moving boxes of meat in a cold warehouse. He was 53 at the time.
Eventually after a few months he got a better job in the dairy industry that he knew...delivering milk to markets in various areas of L.A. He did that job for many years, retiring at about 75, feeding his family and doing his job as a man....and as an example to me.
Listen carefully young students, no matter what the media tells you, no matter what your teachers tell you, or what the authority of the moment tells you -
THERE IS NO CAN'T
Right on. Great legacy to live up to. Thx lb Farr West UT
Posted by: lynn | 10/10/2012 at 13:25
Thank you.
From childhood, I've heard it said, "There is no I can't" but never as eloquently as you put it today. Your father has been the kind of inspiration many young men in this country need desperately.
Posted by: Greg Cross | 10/10/2012 at 13:39
Old, tough guys like that made this country. Now we celebrate the guys who want it all given to them.
Posted by: Ross | 10/10/2012 at 13:49
This blog is becoming the heir apparent to the late, great "Cooper's Commentaries". Keep up the great work.
Posted by: Tcjewlers | 10/10/2012 at 19:12
If you REALY want to do something, you DO IT.
If you DON'T want to do something, there are always an abundance of excuses.
You are right.....there is no CAN'T
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