What’s Up With The Eye-Patch?

It was my 8th birthday party and I had just gotten off the Slip n’ Slide as we sat down to eat, still in our bathing suits… the adults on the deck, and the kids at our special table in the yard.

My dad jokingly splashed some water on us from above.  I considered this the beginning of a food fight, so I picked a string bean off of my plate and threw it at my cousin.

She didn’t take it very well.  She didn’t scream, she didn’t complain, she just picked up a fork and threw it at me.

If she would have been a better shot, I might have escaped with just a gash… but she missed me completely, hitting the table in front of my plate.

The fork bounced off of the wood and before I had time to blink, it punctured my eye.

Four perfectly symmetrical dots streaming blood down both sides of my eye.

In the hospital that night, I had emergency surgery to remove my lens and vitreous.  Permanent damage that can never be fully restored.

However, you won’t catch me complaining about it.

Struggling through that kind of challenge at 8-years old is a crash course in character building and work ethic.

When I was 7, playing baseball was all I ever wanted to do… at 8, after six months of restricted physical activity, I found that I no longer had the necessary depth perception to catch a ball or swing at a pitch.

But I didn’t quit… I just practiced for hours until I could catch, throw, and hit the ball as well as I could before.

I’ve maintained this work ethic when it comes to writing copy.  Every product and promotion is a new challenge, but I always have the confidence (that started with catching a baseball no matter how many times I got hit) that if I just keep working, eventually I’ll get it done, and it will work.

In life and business, no matter what disadvantage you have, you can always be a player if you’re just willing to outwork your competition.