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Whatever it takes

By Becky McCray

When I was a little kid, my mom and dad owned their own trucking business. One winter, things weren’t going great. In fact, things looked pretty bad.

Convenience store firewoodThey went home to visit their parents in Alva, and cut a big load of firewood while they were there. Then they headed back to Oklahoma City, where we lived. They put the firewood out for sale at convenience stores.

That wasn’t part of their plan. They weren’t going into the firewood business. But they did have a “whatever it takes” attitude.

How did it turn out? The firewood sales helped to keep our family and the business going through the winter. The trucking business became a success, the first of many for my parents.

I think about this story every so often, when someone tells me about some relatively small obstacle that is keeping them from starting a business or some problem that has them declaring defeat. And even when I complain about a setback. Where is my “whatever it takes” attitude?

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Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
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April 5, 2010 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, Small Biz 100, survivors

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Comments

  1. Territory Mom says

    April 5, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    Thanks. I needed this today. I’m going in for an attitude adjustment.

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  2. Gladys Strickland says

    April 6, 2010 at 3:52 am

    Great story – and a great reminder that I really needed to hear today. Off to see what ideas I can generate.

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  3. kalinka80 says

    April 7, 2010 at 3:12 am

    This is a great attitude to have in these testing times. If you put your mind to it, you could achieve amazing results. There are many resources available to help you out. http://www.introducingsuccess.com has many tips on how to start and run an ecommerce business.

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