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Hero
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No Plan for Success
It was all a big mistake. A shipment of pocket watches arrived at the train station addressed to a jeweler in Redwood Falls. The startled jeweler told the young railway agent that he never ordered the watches and refused to pay for them. The young railway agent, Richard Sears, decided to purchase the shipment of watches himself.
Evidently there was something magical about that shipment. Whoever accepted those watches was destined and fated to become rich. Either that, or a lowly railway agent named Richard Sears saw opportunity where others saw only problems.
The following year, Richard Sears moved to Chicago and ran an ad in the Chicago Daily News. "WANTED: Watchmaker with reference who can furnish tools. State age, experience, and salary required. ADDRESS T39, Daily News." An Indiana lad, Alvah Roebuck, answered the ad, never suspecting it to be the luckiest day of his life. Sears made him a partner, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. was born. Like the jeweler in Redwood Falls, however, Roebuck had little need for adventure and resigned from the company just a few years after responding to the classified ad.
Alvah Roebuck and the jeweler from Redwood Falls each had a plan for success, and the dreams of Richard Sears had no place in those plans. The jeweler was a jeweler. He didn't order any watches. Watches had no place in his plan. "Send the watches back." Roebuck was a watchmaker. His plan was to fix watches. Roebuck's plan had no place for a mail-order company, so he briskly stepped away. Richard Sears was a lowly railway agent who had no plan for watches, no plan for a direct-mail company, no plan for success at all. Richard Sears's only plan was to seek opportunities where others had found only problems. Sears would find a need, then fill it.
The cliff is high, but the view is beautiful. Will you walk near the edge with Richard Sears, or will you settle for a post card from the tourist shop? If you choose to get in line for the post card, buy a couple extra and send them to Alvah Roebuck and the jeweler in Redwood Falls. Write, "Having a great time, wish you were here," and sign it, "Richard Sears."
~ Roy H. Williams
To view the archives click here.
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Invisible Heroes is a collection of more than 100 biographical stories written by Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads. You can read a few of these stories in the archives of this web page, but most of them are inaccessible because they're soon to be published in a book.
We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they create us in their own image. Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They're the embodiment of all we're striving to be.
Do you want to be notified when Invisible Heroes is published? Give us your email address and we'll send you a note when the book is ready. (We solemnly swear not to let anyone else have your address. We detest spam as much as you do.)
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