10-28-2020

Pioneers faced the unknown and overcame huge challenges! When we try to put ourselves in their shoes and understand what they must have been thinking in order to succeed, we could solve our own huge challenge, but it takes a little imagination.

For example, President Washington and President Lincoln faced the ultimate wars, with battles of an unknown outcome for an entire nation. Death and bloodshed was all around them. They had to stay focused, for them it was the ultimate mental challenge. For Washington it was all about creating a free nation under God and for Lincoln, it was keeping the free nation under God in one piece and not divided.

In American business, we have examples of this mental challenge on a different battlefield. Isn’t so much of our lives all about mental focus? Haven’t you had a big fat problem that wouldn’t go away, until you changed how you looked at it?

In business, this is so true! You may not have heard of Henry Flagler, however most Floridians know the name. He is known as the Father of Miami, Palm Beach and St Augustine. He built his Florida East Coast Railway from St Augustine all the way down to Key West. Beginning in 1880, he built the Ponce De Leon Hotel in St Augustine and other spectacular hotels in Palm Beach and Miami.

He was an invaluable partner with John D Rockefeller at Standard Oil, he was wealthy, driven and very intelligent. He was a visionary, yet he knew pain too! Failure wasn’t foreign to him. As President Lincoln was communicating with his Generals during the Civil War, Flagler sold his distillery business and started a salt mining company (York), thinking it would be greatly needed for food preservation during the war. Things went well for a while during the war, until demand dropped off and price cutting drove him out of business. He lost everything! So, he dusted himself off, got a job as a grain merchant again and paid off over $100,000 and then would go into business with Rockefeller creating Standard Oil and the rest is history!

Florida is the world’s #1 tourist destination today! One man’s vision, pioneered America’s vacation capital, Henry Flagler.

We will share stories on this blog that could inspire you and spark your imagination. They’ve really inspired me!

As I mentioned earlier, Morton Imagine Company is all about mental focus. We’ve heard this before but it’s so easy to get off track (mental focus). This is why we will explore how American pioneers (including seniors), paved the way for all of us. Looking at history through their lens and imagining solutions for today’s challenges.

Explore America!

You can subscribe to our podcast and watch our film and book trailers at historymeansbusiness.com, rodlancemorton.com and vimeo.com

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