Me, Ivana Trump, And The Tour Bus Driver


Perhaps one of the defining moments of my trip last week had nothing to do with either the seminar or the cruise!

It was the ten minute conversation that I had with the bus driver of a short tour I took to South Beach in Miami on the morning before I flew home.

He was a Chilean immigrant who was very knowledgeable and did a good job.

I can never help myself when I have a few minutes alone with a tour guide!

I always ask them - "What do you REALLY want to do?"

It turns out that this guy was a painter in the afternoons.

Not a painter and decorator - a REAL painter of what he called 'real things' - people, animals, life in general.

Apparently he has had his work exhibited before...and each painting has sold from between $2,000 to $4,000!

Not bad, I'm sure that you'll agree.

If YOU could sell YOUR paintings for that sort of money - wouldn't YOU try to paint as many of them as possible...even if it meant a little short-term financial pain...or an erratic income for the first few months?

I asked this guy when he painted. Most afternoons, he told me.

It usually took him a couple of days to do a painting...and his paintings of Ocean Drive always sell, he continued.

Don't you think that by this time - the alarm bells were ringing in my head?

So...I asked him (what to me anyway) was THE obvious question?

"Why are you driving a bus when you could be painting all day long?"

Not surprisingly - he answered that he NEEDED the regular income of his bus tour job to help provide for his family.

I'm sure that you can associate with that, right?

But...if he was painting all day - he agreed that he could probably paint at least ten to fifteen paintings a month, instead of the few he does because he only does it in the afternoons...and then easily gets distracted by the night-life in Miami.

Wouldn't YOU leverage YOUR talent KNOWING that there is a market for what you do?

Well...he's still driving his bus...and doing a good job, and getting a few dollars in tips from the tourists.

I'm almost certain that he will NEVER become a full-time painter - even though that's what he WANTS to do!

The short-term 'need' for money gets in the way of long-term ambition.

It's the same, yet unfulfilling, story.

Yet, this guy has TALENT.

How do I know?

Well...if you manage to get a visit to Ivana Trump's yacht when it is next moored in Miami...make sure that you look for a painting of Ocean Drive that cost her $4,000.

It's his. And she bought it from him after he was introduced to her as a painter, and not a tour bus driver.

Yet...wouldn't you agree that this guy IS - and always WILL BE - a painter?

That's ALL he ever could be!

What ARE you?