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Embarrassing True Confession With a Life Lesson Learnt

By Mirela Monte

Real Estate Broker/Owner with Buyers' Choice Realty

November 19, 2008 10:10 AM

As a young girl I was cruel to ants.

I used to get a piece of candy all nice and gooey, then spit it right next to an ant hill. I watched as the ants rushed to garner all its sweet juices.

When the candy was full of ants, I used to put my magnifying glass on them and wait. Pretty soon the sun would do its magic and set a few of the ants on fire. Once in a while an ant tried to flee the heat. I used to keep the bean of light on it while it stumbled along, trying to get away. The magnifying glass always won.

I am not very proud of my ant destruction antics, but I did learn one thing from the experience: in order for the burn to occur, I had to keep the magnifying glass in place over the same ant for prolonged periods of time. If I moved it even for a few moments, the magic was gone and I had to start over again.

That lesson has served me well in life: intense focus over prolonged periods of time will always render the desired results. The trick is to keep it up long enough.

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Mirela Monte

Buyers' Choice Realty - North Myrtle Beach, SC

Myrtle Beach Real Estate

Just for the record: I have never been cruel to anything else but ants and other insects, plus a few grubs. I always spared the butterflies and bees.

I was a very curious child...

BTW, I was not able to dissect the frog in biology class.

Nov 19, 2008 10:16 AM

Norma Toering Broker for Palos Verdes and Beach Cities

Charlemagne International Properties - Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Palos Verdes Luxury Homes in L.A.

Nice analogy, but not so nice for the ants! There is no doubt this is a time for intense focus and relentless pursuit of our goals.

Just for the record: I'm curious how many of you will fess up to experimenting with the magnifying glass over small insects as a child. My bet is that at least a quarter of the males here were at some point involved with tormenting ants. Embarrassing, but true. Please don't give me a hard time about it; I'm embarrassed enough as it is!

The point here is to convey the importance of focus. In a market such as this, I thought that I could sacrifice this bit of embarrassment for the good of this message.

Nov 19, 2008 10:29 AM

Janice Roosevelt

Keller Williams Brandywine Valley - West Chester, PA

OICP ABR, ePRO,Ecobroker

Very authentic! Thank you for sharing. My destruction insects focused on fireflys, whose glowing bums we would extract, either wearing them as jewelry or placing many of them in a jar, using it as a light - but as many things so easily gotten and not well thought out in terms of the harm it does to others, the light lasted only a short while. Janice Roosevelt

Nov 19, 2008 10:30 AM

Lou Ludwig

Ludwig & Associates - Boca Raton, FL

Designations Earned CRB, CRS, CIPS, GRI, SRES, TRC

Hi Mirela

Great story, being the point home on the value of focus in our lives and our businesses.

Good luck and success

Nov 19, 2008 10:40 AM

Gregory Lohr

West Columbia, SC

Let the truth be known...99% of all boys did something similar, its just in our nature. We have to see if it works as we were told, we must see for ourselves or it isn't true. We must experience the experience for ourselves. Curiosity rules.

Good way to pull a very good point out of a childhood experiment, even if the experiment was a bit cruel. At least something positive came from it!

As always...another well written blog Mirela!

Nov 19, 2008 11:31 AM

Laura Cerrano

Feng Shui Manhattan Long Island - Locust Valley, NY

Certified Feng Shui Expert, Speaker & Researcher

Mirela, I have seen that done, I guess we all have but never made the connection to FOCUS. That hit home, thanks so much for the A HA moment.

Nov 19, 2008 01:35 PM

Robert Rauf

CMG Home Loans - Toms River, NJ

Interesting correlation, (note to self, throw away the ant costume)... It is true, we do have to focus, just not necessarily on ants!

Nov 20, 2008 12:49 AM

Janice, I really enjoyed your response! Your ending was perfect:

"but as many things so easily gotten and not well thought out in terms of the harm it does to others, the light lasted only a short while."

Perfect! A+

Thank you!

Nov 20, 2008 03:29 PM

Embarrassing True Confession With a Life Lesson Learnt

As a young girl I was cruel to ants.

I used to get a piece of candy all nice and gooey, then spit it right next to an ant hill. I watched as the ants rushed to garner all its sweet juices.

That lesson has served me well in life: intense focus over prolonged periods of time will always render the desired results. The trick is to keep it up long enough.

Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela Monte Join The Optimist Group!

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