His descendants include…

Some of our most recognized celebrities: Bing Crosby, Ted Danson, Richard Gere, Katherine Hepburn, Ashley Judd, John Lithgow, and more.

Politicians on the right and the left, including Sarah Palin and Howard Dean. Numerous members of both houses of Congress. Governors. Cabinet members. Even a President, Zachary Taylor.

The founders of the Associated Press and the ACLU.

Even the famous poet and master storyteller, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was part of his bloodline.

Listen to this post! Click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show.

iPhone/iPad Podcast Player

He is William Brewster. He served as the Elder of the church at Plymouth until they were able to get a pastor. As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States, we found his story riveting.

BIGG success is life on your own terms. William Brewster is clearly an example of this mindset.

He lived nearly eighty years. In his time, he set out on a new course for living more than once. He did it twice.

Act 1. Setting: England

He served William Davison, who was Queen Elizabeth’s Secretary of State. Brewster stood out.

Davison soon regarded him as his most trusted advisor. Brewster was in the loop on everything. Eventually, Brewster served as an Ambassador to the Low Countries. He received recognition for his work there.

But trouble was brewing. Brewster believed in a separation between Church and State. The bishops of the Church of England had persuaded the King that people like Brewster were religious outlaws.

The authorities did everything they could to silence Brewster and his people. Brewster was one of the people singled out to spend the most time in jail.

Brewster decided it was time to chart a new course for living. He was in his early 40s at the time.

Act 2. Setting: Holland

His health had been wrecked by his time in prison. And he spent nearly all the money he had to get to Holland.

To make matters worse, his education and experience didn’t lend themselves to the work available in this new place. He couldn’t even speak the native language!

So he struggled to make ends meet in his early years. But he soon found his niche.

He discovered he had a knack for teaching English. Furthermore, there was a sizable, unserved market of people who wanted to learn English as a second language.

And they had the money to pay for this education. His niche primarily focused on the children of the dignitaries in Holland and surrounding countries.

But Brewster was an ambitious man. And he had a calling.

With a partner, he started a publishing firm. They printed books that were banned in England because they weren’t officially sanctioned by the Church.

Brewster was prosperous. Yet he hadn’t fulfilled his purpose – to lead his people from the tyranny of Church and State to complete freedom and independence.

He felt the need to chart a new course for living again.

Act 3. Setting: The New World

At 53, Brewster, his wife, and two of his five children set sail across the Atlantic. Destination: New World.

They set sail on the Mayflower. The ship wasn’t large enough to accommodate his whole family. So they left their three oldest children with their minister.

The trip was brutal. Damp. Dark. And the storms.

One storm raged so wildly that the ship’s chief timber cracked. Even the sailors on the boat were scared the boat would be ripped apart. The storm eventually subsided and the crew was able to mend the beam.

Hope waned as day after day past. However, the sight of land created a jubilation he had rarely experienced.

The jubilation soon turned into a harsh realization. He was starting over.

Food was scarce. The elements were harsh. There were no buildings, no infrastructure, no nothing.

It was the ultimate startup. They had to create everything from scratch.

But the people pulled together to make it happen. And Brewster thrived once again.

He preached. He raised his children, all of whom eventually made it across the pond. And he had his own farm.

He charted a new course for living and helped create an entire nation from scratch. In this new nation, we are free to worship as they please.

William Brewster was a BIGG success!

Are you ready to chart a new course for living? Maybe we can help!

Sources

Pilgrim Hall Museum

Scholastic

Wikipedia

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00755-112311.mp3

Image in this post from wikimedia

Last time, we discussed the single biggest barrier to your success – the fear of failure. We challenged you to cultivate the fear of not trying so you overcome the fear of failure.
Don't forget to keep visualizing your future!

Today, we want to discuss storytelling – how to tell the right story right. To get the most benefit from this, you really should listen to today’s show. It’s really easy to do. Just click on the “triangle” above.

If you don’t want to do that, you can read it here. If you’re a history buff, we highly recommend the site where we got this story: Boston 1775.

Longfellow’s Dilemma
Do you remember the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that starts like this:

Listen my children, and you shall hear,
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

Of course, the purpose of Revere’s ride was to warn the people of the colonies that the British were coming.

But did you know that Longfellow faced a dilemma after he wrote this poem.  You see, there was a second rider that night. A gentleman by the name of William Dawes. And the Dawes family didn’t take kindly to Longfellow’s failure to mention their ancestor.

So, why did Longfellow single out Revere? We need some background before we can answer that question.

Some time before Longfellow wrote his poem, Revere was asked to record the events of that fateful evening. And Revere delivered exactly what was expected – a riveting account about the start of the American Revolution that historians have used ever since.

So why did Longfellow single out Revere in his famous poem?

Because Paul Revere told a great story!

The two parts to telling the right story right

Stories advance your message by capturing your audience.  So, it follows, good storytelling helps advance your career. 

Telling stories well, though, isn’t always easy.  So here’s the story on storytelling.

Get the right story

• Your story must relate to your audience and your topic.Your story should naturally lead to or from your topic.
• Your story should be proportional to your presentation; you can’t spend half of your  presentation telling a story.
• Your story must ring true, but should describe a situation that is out-of-the-ordinary.
• Your story should present a problem faced by the main character.
• Your story should have a happy ending … or at least be uplifting to your audience.

Get the story right

• Pretend you’re telling your story to your best friend.
• Tell your story from one character’s point-of-view.
• Develop the story fully.  You want to paint a picture in the mind of your audience. That’s worth a thousand words, right?
• Vary your pace with the activity of the story.  Describe a flurry with rapidity and so on. This helps your audience feel the story.
• Use moments of silence for emphasis.
• Don’t rush through the punch line.
• It is okay to embellish, but you should not lie.

Stories connect you with your audience by capturing their attention. Choose the right story and tell it right and you’ll be a hit every time!

Our quote today is by the author, Philip Pullman.

“’Thou shalt not’ is soon forgotten, but ‘Once upon a time’ lasts forever.”

That’s the story on storytelling. Tell the right story right and you’ll live happily ever after.

Next time, we’ll look at the role of role playing.

Until then, here’s to your bigg success!