As a nationally syndicated columnist, I am always on the lookout for good ideas, those I feel will be of interest and helpful to you as one of my readers. From my perspective, there is no one in the world more important than you are.

These ideas come along sometimes in the most unorthodox ways. The other day my wife and I were having dinner at a great barbecue restaurant here in Conway called Whole Hog Café. This little restaurant sits alongside Interstate 40, one of the most traveled interstates in the nation. As I sat there watching the traffic going both ways, I got to thinking about the people in these vehicles who were riding along, going to some destination.

Then it occurred to me that “finding our place in society” is a process that all of us go through, to some degree, at a critical time in our life. Save for those who were born with a debilitating handicap, we all have to find work of some type to support ourselves. For many people this is more or less cut and dried, as they inherit a business, or at least stay in the same line of work as their parents. It is also a given fact that the vast majority of us want to be a success in life. Now, many folks will “marry well” and never have to have a paying job, but most of us want to be productive.

At this point I hope I have hit you somewhere that at least piques your interest. Please allow me to tell you the roads that Janis and I have traveled, as we may have at least some things in common. I grew up in a small town in South Arkansas and thought I wanted to be a basketball coach. I could not even make the college team, so that idea was quickly abandoned. After a year and a half of college, I dropped out and made my way to North Little Rock, Arkansas, where I had relatives.

Two things I did have were motivation and drive. I also had a gift for gab that I inherited from my father, who never met a stranger. I had the drive because a local businessman in my small town had made a disparaging comment to my mother about me. The bottom line is that I said, “I’ll show him’ and I have, even though he’s been gone for a long time.

Janis has a similar story. She married right out of high school and went to work for a bank. Later she started her own real estate company. She was raised in a Godly home and was a hard worker. Would you believe that back in the days when houses were selling for $35,000 and $40,000, she made the million-dollar club 18 years in a row?

You probably know my story, so I won’t repeat it here. But in discussing this with Janis later, here is a comment that we would all do well to remember. She said, “You have to get out there and make a name for yourself.” Really that’s the bottom line, regardless of what we are doing, our reputation and our good name are more important than most of the other qualities we possess.

Several years ago, I also heard a statement along these same lines, which will help. “All we must do is keep hitting the ball over the fence, and pretty soon they will come around to see who is hitting them that hard.”

—(Jim Davidson is an author, public speaker, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. Since its inception in the Log Cabin Democrat in 1995, Jim’s column has been self-syndicated in over 375 newspapers in 35 states. For a personalized copy of “Your Future Begins Today” send $20, which includes postage and handling, to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)