Dear Intrepid Entrepreneur, if you have the heart of a farmer, you’re already a success.

What? Explain! “On on the 8th day,” Paul Harvey said, “God made a farmer.” On Super Sunday, February 3, 2013, Dodge aired that ad. Take two minutes and listen.

 

It will give you something to judge against this year’s Super Bowl ads.

Roy H. Williams says, “Win the heart and the mind will follow.” Harvey, (Paul not William), high-fived my heart that day. Before I tell you why I address this note to you, I disclose that I’m a farmer’s son.

When the clock hit noon and for the next 15 minutes, Paul Harvey was a guest at our kitchen table. I thanked Paul for halting our toil. He gave my cousins and me a time out of shoveling stuff, fixing fence, trimming trees, sweeping bins, and loading grain. Noon was a good time to break for lunch. Paul Harvey made it sacred. Even when I was dragging a plow in a cloud of dust, I was in a great spot. The tractor’s dinning diesel couldn’t drown Paul. Heavy headphones sealed my ears in a wet, tight, dusty vise.

“Life doesn’t get any better than this,” my uncle once remarked during a rock-picking break in a far-flung field. “Here we are having a picnic lunch in the fresh air, listening to Paul Harvey on the radio.” I see him soaking up the shade, reclining against the front tire of the ’49 Chevy, our long-gone grain truck pulling ghost duty as a ’70s rock-picking flatbed.

Paul Harvey was the reason to stop at noon and listen. Paul Harvey was the reason to stop and listen (and watch) a commercial on Super Sunday.

Back to the beginning of this story.

Do you ever think, “I need a Paul Harvey to write up one of those farmer stories for my profession…for my company!” When Paul Harvey hearted that speech to the Future Farmers of America in 1978, he wasn’t thinking about a Super Bowl ad for Dodge. Harvey exemplified what Roy advocates. Harvey delivered a heartfelt message to “people who believed what he believed.” He also used rhetorical devices to do it (that’s for another day).

You’re not a farmer. But if you’re committed to your business and have the heart of the farmer Harvey describes, you’re already successful. It wouldn’t hurt to have a Harvey shine some light on your business (or profession). To make the world stop and take notice isn’t only for Super Sunday. To make your town stop and take notice is a great place to start. There’s a Harvey or two I can direct you to, if there’s a farmer in your heart.

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