Here’s what I like about driving in the west (in addition to the long stretches of ribbon o’ highway that give me uninterrupted time to lose myself in great podcast episodes). It’s all about the old motels – those original rest stops from the 50s and 60s when entrepreneurs noticed that America was going places and needed a place to sleep on the way:
You pull into one end of town to get gas. But instead of hopping right back on the freeway, you decide to drive the entire length of the town on the old business route, and check out what’s going on. Out where I am, you get teepee motels, astro-aspirational motel signs from the 60s, a revived “hotel of the stars” where I hear you can get an amazing breakfast with a spectacular view of the butte and train tracks. All good stuff. Each one a reflection of someone’s big, personal dream.
And then there are the faded signs painted on brick walls of buildings that date back to the 1900s. I spotted this one in a small Colorado town somewhere between Santa Fe and Aspen. Not sure if this particular Piggly Wiggly enterprise is the same as today’s supermarket chain. I haven’t seen any stores this far west.
But then again, at the time of time sign’s painting, “all over the world” was the dream. And someone was fired up enough about it to invest good, hard, cash money to paint that on the side of a building in a small Colorado town, whose name I’ve already forgotten. Sun up, sun down, sun up, sun down again for decades in this tiny Colorado town, that sign remains the faithful pronouncement that one day — not today, maybe, but one day, by God — Piggly Wiggly will, indeed, be all over the world.
Who’s to say that it won’t be? Story’s not over yet. Evidence of an enduring vision of some very ambitious influence remains.
What’s your vision for your lasting influence?
- Do you want to be the source of inspiration for future generations of success against all odds?
- Do you want your experience as an entrepreneurial visionary to be the blueprint that will help future generations launch their own start-ups with all the faith that, yes, it can happen for them too?
- Do you want your story to be the proof that one person can indeed make a huge difference in the world?
- Do you want your leadership example to be a time-honored reference point?
- Do you want your story to be about hope, endurance, perseverance, wisdom? Heck, even world dominance, like our friend Piggly Wiggly here?
Whatever your ideas are about what kind of legacy you want to leave, you’re building up the layers of example and influence now. Day by day. Sun up, sun down, sun up, sun down.
What will be the sign you leave behind, long after your name might be forgotten but your influence lasts?