My Personal Goals Success Stories

Although I may appear to be an egomaniac for writing this newest page, that is really not the reason for it. I just check my website stats and found the "About Mike Caldwell" is the third most visited page on the website, behind the home page and blog. So if you folks really want to know who I am and what I'm about, I'll give you a bit more information.

I believe on this site's homepage I said there is only one thing leaders have in common and that is followers. But there is another thing, and that is vision. All leaders have vision, and have the ablility of convincing their followers to support that vision. Vision and goals are closely linked and I've been extremely successful in achieving my goals. After one of my presentations on Goal Realization, where I give a number of personal examples, the first question I always receive from the audience is "how old are you?". Few people believe I could have accomplished this many things given how old I look. (Most people guess I'm in my late 20's/early 30's. I'm actually 38.)

Although I am mostly perceived as a fairly easy going, laid back guy, I'm actually a raging Type A Personality (Type A personality is a term used to describe people who are driven, hard-working, busy, and impatient). Whenever I commit to a goal that is all I think about, whether I'm eating my dinner, walking in the woods, watching TV, or sleeping. And the cool thing about goals is that reality follows thought. The more you think about it, the more likelihood it has of coming true. Oprah once said that "luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity".

Have you ever bought a new car or considered buying a new car? What happens when you're on the road with thoughts in the back of your mind about that new car? What is it you happen to notice on the roads wherever you look? That new car! My first car was a Silver Honda Civic. After I purchased that vehicle I was convinced that silver Civics comprised 25% of the cars on the road. They were everywhere I looked!

If your goals are also in the back of your mind at all times, you'll also be aware of more opportunities to make that goal happen. In fact, everywhere you look you'll see more opportunities. I believe this is why I've been so successful realizing many of my goals. Here is a partial list of those accomplishments:

Raft Guide on the Coppermine River, NWT

I was in Grade 12 when the first issue of Paddler Magazine came out. For every year subscription you purchased you received one entry to paddle the Coppermine River in Canada's Northwest Territories. My buddy Scott and I both purchased 2 year subscriptions and made a pact to take the other guy on the trip if we were lucky enough to win. We weren't...

But because of my passion for paddling and the outdoors my high school Outdoor Education teacher arranged a summer job for me working with Hap Wilson as a canoe guide in Temagami, Ontario. Hap is one of the best canoe mentors a guy could possibly have, and it is because of my experience with him that when I applied for a job as a raft guide on the Ottawa River the next summer I was hired on the spot.

While I was doing this, Scott was living a parallel life on a project called Operation Raleigh in the Canadian Yukon. Scott's experience here led him to being offered a job as a raft guide on the Coppermine River! When that company suddenly became short a guide guess who Scott recommended for the position. And again, because I had the preparation, I was ready for the opportunity. And three years after subscribing to Paddler Magazine, I found myself being paid (handsomely too, I might add) to guide the Coppermine River!

Touring Europe

Since my dad was terrified of flying, my experience of the world was quite limited until I reached university. Then I began learning things and talking to people and building a desire to see and experience Europe. I didn't know how I was going to do it since I had to pay my own way through school, but it was definitely a goal of mine.

Then one evening while sharing this dream with my rafting partner, Dennis, on the Coppermine River, he told me of a friend who owned a rafting company in France. He said he'd give me his contact information and I should write to him once we returned home. So seeing an opportunity here, I did. As it turned out, Dennis's friend wasn't in a position to hire me but he forwarded me the contact information of 2 company's who might. So I followed up with both of them and before the month was out I was hired to work for AN Rafting in the French Alps! The fact that I didn't speak a word of French didn't seem to matter to them as they expected me to guide most of their German clients.

So that was going to work out great, except I don't speak German either!

The Travel Goals Continue

This goal is actually pretty funny although it may get me in trouble with my wife once she reads this!

I was working as an ambulance attendant and living in Hamilton with a friend and we were both frustrated with our dead-end lives. Beck's "I'm a Loser" had just came out and that was our shared theme song. So to break out of this slump I was planning a trip to either Australia or Africa to visit some friends I had there (and maybe guide some rafts along the way). But one night Jodi rented the movie "Aspen Extreme". This is the story of 2 buddies from Chicago who get sick of their jobs, pack up their van, and move to Aspen. One guy dies in an avalance, but the other guys hooks up with a millionaire ski bunny and lives the high life skiing every day and partying every night (until he learns the morale of the story and leaves his shallow girfriend for a more meaningful existence teaching blind kids to ski or whatever Hollywood yada yada yada ending it had). Anyway, the point of my story was that night I told Jodi that instead of going to Australia or Africa, I might go to Colorado and ski instead.

Coincidentally, the previous winter I had taken a volunteer position as a ski patroller at Hamilton's Chedoke Ski Hill (this hill is probably 70' long from top to bottom - I don't know why they even have a lift installed). I had also applied to a number of paramedic training programs in the USA (California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado). I had all but forgotten about these paramedic program feelers I had sent out there when I was contacted by the Swedish Medical Center in Denver. Apparently they were impressed with my application and if I could pass their entrance test I was accepted! So I passed their silly little test and a month later my van was packed and I was on the move to Colorado.

My first day down there I had a major mechanical problem with my van which ate up the majority of my savings. So instead of renting an apartment I ended up living in my van in the Safeway parking lot across the street from the hospital. I was also living in the country illegally (I didn't have time to acquire a student visa) and early on in the program I learned that I tested positive for tuberculosis!

So basically I had no money, I was in the country illegally, I had no home and I had a life threatening illness. Oh yeah, and the certification I was going to receive in Colorado wouldn't be recognized by any employers in Canada. So this program could be a little more stressful than I had planned.

But let's cut to the chase with this story (I could write an entire book about my experiences down there). Ultimately I met up with the one attractive single girl in my class and we started dating. As it turned out she owned a condo at the base of the hill at the Copper Mountain Ski Resort. Ultimately, the USA government forced us to get married, or have me deported. So before I knew it, I was no longer living in my van but had a luxury condo at the base of a Colorado Ski Hill. I couldn't work initially because I didn't have a green card, so I skied all day and experienced the resort life all night with my wife. The only thing missing was a dead avalanche buddy! Fortunately that didn't happen, but unfortunately my marriage ended the same way as the guy in Aspen Extreme and I ended up working as a Social Work Services Coordinator!

How spooky is that story for goals realization?????

Moving to Ottawa

So after 3 years being married, and 2 years being single in Colorado, I returned to Canada and moved back in with my original roommate so she and I could sing "I'm a loser baby" together again. Ontario had changed the paramedic laws since I had left and there was a chance my training and experience in Colorado might be recognized. But unfortunately at the time of my return, no services were hiring at all. So I took a part time job working on a patient transfer vehicle (a glorified taxi cab). Here I was right back to where I started 5 years ago, but with less money and a much worse job. I was desperate for anything I could get to improve my situation and had resumes sent out everywhere. My dream location was Ottawa as I had fell in love with that region during my time there as a raft guide. But with the bilingual issues of that area I wasn't holding my breath. I was willing to work anywhere that would hire me!

Then one day when I was in my room working on my "Learn to Speak French" CD, I received a phone call from a french speaking helicopter pilot asking if I'd like to work as the paramedic supervisor for a new air ambulance service being started in Ottawa. I was sure that call must have been some sort of joke, but it wasn't. I was just hired for a job I hadn't even applied for! My name was simply passed on by a nurse at Sunnybrook Hospital and, due to some confusion in the language, instead of calling to interview me, Martin hired me on the spot!

And before I knew it I was responsible for setting up and establishing Ontario's new Preferred Provider Air Ambulance Program. I had to not only hire the staff for the Ottawa Base, but I had to oversee the installation of bases in Ottawa, London, Kenora, and Moosonee. Then I was moved to Ottawa, where I worked as helicopter paramedic and supervised the Ottawa base. In a matter of weeks I went from being a cab driver to literally having the best paramedic job in the country. My goal was to live in Ottawa, and there I was doing EXACTLY what I had always dreamed of doing as a paramedic. What paramedic doens't want to work on a helicopter?

Building My Own House

Remember what the Grateful Dead once said "Well the first days are the hardest days, don't you worry any more, 'cause when life looks like easy street there is danger at your door."

Well sure enough, life as a helicopter medic wasn't quite the dream I had envisioned. The politics there were out of this world, and the key managers in the organization were pure evil. But luckily one day I fell off of a cliff and broke my arm, leg and back. This inhibited me from working as a paramedic and gave me the kick I needed to start my own team building and leadership training business.

I had received my Master of Science in Management Degree while working as a firefighter/paramedic in Colorado and wanted to combine some of the theory from that with what I experienced working with Colorado Outward Bound. But it's pretty hard to simply walk away from a $70k/yr job without some sort of nudge from the cosmos. This unexpected time off was all the nudge I needed.

While I was bedridden, I surfed the internet and found a partially constructed sawmill on 164 acres that was for sale 40 minutes north of Ottawa in the Gatineau Hills. So I grabbed my crutch and had a friend drive me to the site. The place was uglier than any junkyard and for me it was love at first site. So I offered the guy his asking price and we shook on the deal then and there. All I had to do was sell my house and cottage to pay for the place!

Surprisingly, both those sales went reasonably well and in the winter of 2003 I moved into my new "house". Of course there were only exterior walls on three sides, no running water or septic facilities. But these were just minor inconveniences (except on the -30C days and -40C nights, when the inconveniences were a little more severe!). But little by little, I was able to get the walls up and the insulation in. How big a job could building a 2-story, 30'x100' house really be?

Prior to closing on the house I had called Hydro Quebec and learned that hydro installation would cost in excess of $45,000. I had always dreamed of "living off the grid", and found living on solar power more fiscally reasonable. When I called Bell Canada, they told me a telephone could be installed for $75. I argued and argued with them, but they assured me this would be the fee.

Sadly I was right on this issue, and when the technician arrived at my house to install the phone he informed me there was no possible way I could EVER have a phone here!

Well that was discouraging news to say the least since we don't even have cell phone service here.

This story too is another book in the making. But the condensed story is this: I finally got them to agree to install the phone for $45,000. I found a CRTC grant that would pay for $25,000 of this cost, and the remainder of the bill I was able to cover through a completely unexpected inheritance.

It took me over 2 years to succeed at this goal, but the results speak for themselves.

Most Recent Success

My most recent success actually only came to fruition less than one month ago. Because my house was built on agricultural land, was on 164 acres, was unfinished, was a converted sawmill and operated on solar power, no bank wanted to extend a mortgage to us. So we had to apply for and max the credit limit on every credit card we could. We had to apply for personal lines of credit and borrow money from friends and family to finance this place. Near the end we were paying in excess of $2500/mth in interest alone!

We needed a mortgage and we needed one soon. There were no other options available to us. Our insurance company has our home valued at $700,000 because it has 4500 feet of living space, has oak hardwood floors from end to end to end and all new features. We couldn't declare bankruptcy because on paper we were worth too much. But we didn't have any money at all - every dime when to the maxxed credit cards and interest payments. But every bank we approached, and there were literally dozens, initially all wanted to lend us the money as a mortgage, but one by one they all found a reason they had to bow out.

I was really starting to get quite stressed out and frightened. But then on my third attempt with the National Bank in Wakefield things began to come together. In the end, the National Bank paid for our home appraisal and notary fees, and with their appraisal have lent us all the money we needed and assigned us with $100,000 equity in our home!

Once again, at the 11th hour my goal came to be.

Depending on which perspective you take on my life you will either see me as lucky or falling on a lot of hard luck. I have been very successful and have realized every one of my dream to date. The majority of which were realized due to perserverance and perspiration. Perhaps I was "lucky" reaching some of the other goals, but without the proper preparation I wouldn't have been positioned to take advantage of those opportunities when they surfaced.

Peter Drucker once said that most people over estimate what they can accomplish in a year but underestimate what they can accomplish in 5 years. If you have a goal and it's important to you simply continue to think about it. You'll be surprised to see what opportunties present themselves to you.

Stick with your dreams and before you know it your thoughts will become your reality.