“My dad was a real estate investor, and also a very cheap one”, said Eddie Wilson with a big smile on his face. “He would be building these apartment complexes, and he would take me to work with him as a young boy.”
“The dump trucks would come out and lay huge piles of sand to fill-in the foundations. I’m standing there with my dad expecting a bobcat to show up anytime. But instead, I got handed a shovel.”
“I’m about seven or eight years old at that time and I’m looking at this massive pile of sand, and this huge hole around the foundations, and we are supposed to shovel all this in and compact it ourselves. I’m thinking, this is going to take weeks.”
“My dad was a taskmaster, so he told me: ‘A little bit at a time, so get going’. We would both shovel and shovel, blisters and all, three to four days shoveling. But every couple of hours he would stop and say: ‘Eddie God will help anyone but he will not help a lazy man’. A few hours later, ‘Eddie, in the Bible, God helped a murderer, but he would not help a lazy man’. Some time later: ‘Eddie, Moses went up the mountain and when he came down, he destroyed the law of God right in front of the people, so he went up the mountain again, and God gave him His law again. No lazy man in the bible.’ ”
“He would teach me bible stories, and he would point out how people in the bible who got God’s help were never lazy. I guess he had his own spin on the bible, and he lived it too.”
“I have carried this hard working mentality throughout my life”, continued Eddie, “even to the point that sometimes I have trouble watching TV for more than 10 minutes at a time. I’m expecting my dad to walk in and tell me how I’d better get up and do something because God is gonna help someone, but He’s not gonna help you sitting there watching TV…”
As I listened to Eddie I smiled to myself, because I was also taught that “God helps those who help themselves”, and while I’m no bible scholar, the concept is one that I also embrace and teach our students. Work diligently, intelligently, and good things will happen to you.
Eddie Wilson is now a very successful entrepreneur who also dedicates his time to helping other business owners achieve greater success in life and business. His dad’s lessons may seem a bit harsh to some today, but in a way, we all could use some of his: “A little bit at a time, so get going” kind of motivation. For Eddie, this mentality of hard and honest work stuck with him and made possible a very prosperous personal and business life.
So the next time you find yourself in front of a huge pile of… whatever it might be, tell yourself: “A little bit at a time, so get going, because God will help anyone, but He will not help a lazy man”. It worked for Eddie, and I’m sure it will work for you too.
Sensei Willy Strohmeier founded Colorado Karate Club in 2005 and has taught traditional Shotokan karate to children and adults in Brighton and Westminster, Colorado, ever since, and writes a monthly column for The Brighton Buzz. More about CKC