Mary
Lawrence was no stranger to tragedy. For five years after her husband’s death
she wandered through life with no real direction. Then late one night, a driver
ran a stop sign and what had been two cars was a mass of twisted rubble.
When
one of the paramedics found her broken body, he said, “Get the others. This
one’s gone.” But she wasn’t and
her spirit was uninjured. On the
way back to town, an amazed medic had discovered she had a pulse! At the hospital the doctor said she
wouldn’t live through the night. She did.
She
spent the next year in the hospital. Her teeth and facial bones wired together.
Later they performed fifteen root canals. They explained they had to do two
facial reconstruction surgeries where no anesthesia could be used. Her response! “Let’s get started.”
A
year later, she was released. Her doctor told her to go home and “take it easy.”
You don’t say that to “No Limits” people unless you get out of the way first!
When
she went shopping, her face still swollen, she would see people she knew were
friends. She couldn’t remember their names because of the permanent brain
damage. They didn’t recognize her and turned their heads rather than look at
her. She said that really hurt.
Her
memory was so bad she concentrated on each word of a sentence so she wouldn’t
forget what she had said at the beginning. She discovered that getting a
California real estate license was very difficult because of the memory work.
Typically, she said that’s what she’d do.
She
would read each page of that thick real estate manual fifty to sixty times
until it was engrained. She passed the full day test the first time!
Mary
went to work for one broker who terminated her after a month because she was
slow in memorizing the inventory. At the second company, it was the same
scenario.
An
hour after the second termination my phone rang. This very determined voice
said, “I’m Mary Lawrence and I want to work for you.”
She
was in our three-week training program a few days later. After she graduated I
placed her in one of my offices. WOW! Her sales were incredible.
A
year later at our annual banquet I announced her name from the stage as one of
our ten Outstanding First Year Salespeople. She came up on the stage. As I
handed her the plaque, she leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Save me a
place. I’ll be back up here next
year.” As I watched her walk away,
I thought, she means that.
The
very next morning Mary bought a long pink dress to wear one year later. She
hung it up in the very center of her closet to remind herself daily of her
goal.
The
next year I stand on that Grand Ballroom stage of the Disneyland Hotel. I tell the
back-story that she had finally told me only a month before. At the end of this
triumphant story I announce that she is #1 out of our 700 salespeople in
listings taken, listings sold, sales and gross commission. “Ladies and
gentlemen, Mary Lawrence.”
Mary,
a true “no limits” champion floats across the dance floor in the beautiful long
pink gown that had acted as her daily inspiration. To add to this triumphant
moment, the band is playing “The Impossible Dream” and several hundred people
rise in a roaring, standing ovation. Not a dry eye in the audience!
She
stands in the spotlight at center stage of the Disneyland Hotel. I move toward
her with the large Number One trophy. She turns, looks me in the eye and says, “I
told you I’d be back!”
Point
to Ponder:
Adversity
sometimes strips a person only to discover the person.
Higher
up and farther on!
Danny
