As you think, so shall you be.
There’s an old saying that you’ve probably heard, and that is so true. It goes, “As you think so shall you be.”

There is power in positive thinking.
You don’t have to spend much time in the book store to see entire shelves of books that deal entirely with positive thinking and what you can accomplish with it. If you haven’t read it, you might take a look a Norman Vincent Peale’s timeless bestseller, “The Power of Positive Thinking.”

During each of my business startups — like anyone I suppose — I did spend some time thinking about what would happen to me (and my family) if my new business was not a success. And that’s when the feeling of fear arrives. It shows up when we think about the consequences of failing. It would be foolish for me to say never think about that. However, it pays to spend a minimum amount of time thinking about failing or just as bad thinking about not failing.

I try to spend as little time as possible thinking about failing.
Over the years. I’ve taught myself to very seldom think about failing. I rarely consider, beyond a moment or two, that whatever it is I am doing will not work. Instead, I spend most of my time thinking about what I am going to do next and what I am going to do to make my ideas work. I never spent time thinking about things like how much money I might make. Quite frankly, that’s always been something that has never overly interested me. Instead, I think about how many customers I might attract, or, how many copies of a particular product I will be able to move — that sort of thing.

When excitement shows up.
When you focus on what you want to do, and how you’re going to do it, the fear evaporates quickly, and in its place, excitement shows up. That’s when the fun and the thrills begin, and the snowball starts to roll. You also might be surprised that you’ll be able to accomplish things you never dreamed you would be able to do, once you free yourself from the shackles and constraints that fear imposes.

Before I started GoDaddy.com I owned a company called Parsons Technology.
I started Parsons Technology in 1984 and sold it to Intuit (the makers of Quicken) for $64 million dollars in late 1994. The example I talk about here deals with how I used positive thinking to get Parsons Technology off the ground.

A good example.
One of the best examples I can give you where focusing on what I wanted to have happen worked for me, took place while I was working two jobs. At the time I was working at LeaseAmerica Corporation (my regular job), and putting the rest of my time into making Parsons Technology work. In fact, I owe everything I have accomplished since, to my ability to focus on the positive back then.

I literally worked around the clock.
It was during September of 1987, and I had already discovered how to sell my one and only product, a home and small business accounting program called MoneyCounts. At that time, I was already investing somewhere around $25,000 a month in magazine advertising and my wife and I were earning somewhere around $10,000 or so in the business. We were working out of our basement, had no employees, and our expenses were at a minimum. In addition to writing the program code for MoneyCounts, I also provided our customers with technical support, which because I was around only at night, was provided only in the evening.

My customers wanted a software program to do their income taxes.
During my many conversations with customers who had purchased my MoneyCounts program, I was asked time and again if I would also be selling a program that they could use to do their income tax return. Because I was asked this very same question repeatedly, I knew that if I had such a program, it would sell well and be yet another reason for customers to do business with little Parsons Technology. I also knew it would be a good money maker, and with the money made from it, perhaps we could get a real office and hire another engineer to help me improve our existing software offerings and create new products.

I started the program in September 1987.
So in September 1987, I started designing and writing our first tax return preparation program. An immediate problem became apparent. Sometime in October, I realized that I could not continue to work a full time job at LeaseAmerica, provide customer support, and still have time to finish the program code for my tax preparation program. Something had to give.

I had to forfeit a $30,000 bonus.
There was a big complication, however. I had a very good year at LeaseAmerica and because I was the head of one of their major operating divisions, I was assured of receiving a very sizeable bonus. The bonus was to be $30,000. At that time, that was quite a bit of money and there were many things I could do to improve Parsons Technology with that extra cash. However, there was a catch. I had to be an employee at LeaseAmerica on January 1, 1988 to earn it. If I quit my job at LeaseAmerica, I would forfeit the entire bonus.

I made the decision to "go for it" late one night.
So one evening in October 1987, instead of writing program code, I spent the evening staring into my computer monitor at our sales numbers and thinking about my dilemma. If I stayed with LeaseAmerica an additional 2 and ½ months, I would have an additional $30,000 in cash that I had many uses for. Or I could instead quit, forfeit the bonus and maybe, just maybe, be able to complete my tax return program in time for the new tax season. There was also the complication that if I did quit my day job and worked full time on the tax program, I might not figure it out or get the code done in time. One of the characteristics of tax software programs is that they only have value if they are available when people need to do their tax returns.

I suppose I thought about this for about 2 or 3 hours, and then I decided. I would quit LeaseAmerica and forfeit the bonus. After deciding, I went upstairs to my bedroom and woke my wife and told her what I decided. To my delight, she supported the decision completely.

My friends thought I was crazy.
The next day, I turned in my notice to LeaseAmerica and was gone from there in two weeks. After doing so, I was told through the grapevine of this one or that one saying, “he’ll be sorry, giving up a good job like that,” or “he’s got to be crazy.” I can honestly say that none of that bothered me.

My first real office.
After I quit my job, I went and found our first real office. I don’t think it was over 500 square feet. Then I dug in and worked day and night on our tax program. I eventually named the new program Personal Tax Edge. In early December, I committed $25,000 additional for magazine advertising promoting my new tax software. Those ads all appeared in the February issues which were all delivered in mid January, plus we did a mailing to our customers telling them about the new tax return program. I was able to do all of this because I was focused on one thing and one thing only — and that was making sure my tax software would be ready in time and that it would be good.

That tax software helped make the company.
Orders streamed in for the tax software, and we experienced our first product synergies. People who bought MoneyCounts also bought Personal Tax Edge. And people who purchased Personal Tax Edge also bought MoneyCounts. Because of this, Parsons Technology became quite profitable and remained profitable until the day my wife and I sold the company.

When it comes to software, everything takes longer than you think.
Writing the software code for Personal Tax Edge took longer than I thought — this is a lesson I would learn many times over in the software business. Everything always takes longer than it seems it should. However, I finished the program in late January and it took me until the first few days in February to get all the bugs shook out of it. Just about everyone who bought Personal Tax Edge was happy with it. Those few customers who didn’t like it, got a refund — no questions asked.

A cool $60,000.
When all was said and done, I figured that we earned somewhere around $60,000 on Personal Tax Edge (and the additional cross sales of MoneyCounts we were able to make because customers came to us to buy the tax software). To this, add the fact that Parsons Technology became a player (albeit then a small one) in the tax software business, and that our new tax product would become a perennial winner for the company.

Focusing on what I wanted to have happen made Parsons Technology successful.
All of this happened, and Parsons Technology was able to be the success it became, because I was able to focus on what I wanted to have happen. I was able to let go of the constraints the LeaseAmerica bonus placed on me. To this very day, I believe that if I was not able to focus on the positives, that nothing I’ve accomplished since would have taken place.

The excitement that manifested itself in me, after I made the decision to quit LeaseAmerica and blow off the bonus, without a doubt enabled me to not only finish my tax software, but to take the added risks necessary to advertise it, commit to having the product available, and delivering the product.

Excitement is contagious.
I know that excitement is contagious and it brings many things with it. It brings good ideas and what is sometimes called, “thinking outside of the box.” It also attracts others. Everyone likes to be excited and be around people who are excited. If there’s anything that I’m addicted to, I would say that excitement is certainly it.

We have a term for people that crave extreme excitement. We call them “thrill junkies.” Sometimes they get their thrills from doing things like bungee jumping off bridges, running with the bulls in Pamplona, etc. – all things I’ve done. But these things are not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is the excitement that comes from being absolutely committed and focused on doing something thing right, and accomplishing something significant.

"Let's worry about what we're going to do to Bobbie Lee."
One of my favorite stories from the Civil War comes from when General Ulysses S. Grant took over command of the Union Army of the Potomac. Upon assuming command, his officers started telling him about their fears concerning what General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate’s top general, might do. They called him Bobbie Lee and they said that “Bobbie Lee” was going to do this, and “Bobbie Lee” was going to do that, and on and on. After listening to all of this, General Grant gave the direction that ultimately brought the war to an end. Grant said “Let’s stop worrying about what Bobbie Lee’s going to do to us, and start thinking about what we’re going to do to Bobbie Lee.”

Focus only on what you want to have happen.
So the essence of this very important rule, “Focus on what you want to have happen” — is that you have to spend your time thinking about whatever it is that you want to do. If you invest your thoughts thinking about what it is you want to accomplish, the likelihood that whatever you want to take place goes up extremely. It also comes with the added benefit that you’ll replace pain and anxiety of fear with the fun and thrill of excitement. This will not only attract others to you. It will empower you to succeed.

This week's special quote.
Look out kid. They keep it all hid. — Bob Dylan, from Subterranean Homesick Blues.