So that’s it. Do I think all the struggles and problems are behind me? That I’ll just ride the IDT rocket into space? Gimme a break. The minute I come back, the problems’ll start again. The Meligoth never goes away, you see. You just have to be ready to fight him every day. That’s what business is all about, never giving up and always being ready to come back for more. It’s never over. It’s the same no matter what business you’re in—hot dogs, brochures, publishing, or international telecommunications.

It reminds me of an old story. This guy brings his shoes in to the shoemaker to get fixed. The shoemaker gives him a little receipt tag, which the guy puts in his pocket. Then he goes home.

As soon as he gets home he turns on the radio, and what do you think? He hears the Japanese just attacked Pearl Harbor and America’ll be going to war. My goodness, he doesn’t know what to do. In a patriotic fervor, he rushes down to the draft booth and enlists, and almost right away they ship him off to basic training. From there, he’s sent to the Pacific, where he spends four years under fire, fighting the Japanese every day. At one point he’s even shot and gets a Purple Heart. But he keeps on fighting and even wins a Silver Star for bravery.

Finally, after four years, America wins and he can come home. He marches in the victory parade into Times Square and the crowd is going wild. Beautiful girls are all waving and cheering and kissing the new vets. He can barely wait to get home, take off his uniform, put on his civilian clothes, and go out to start living again.

As he puts on his clothes, though, he feels in his pocket the little tag from the shoes he’d brought in all those years ago.

Wow, he thinks, I wonder if that little shoe repair shop is still there. I’ll walk over and see.

He walks over, and what do you know, it’s still there. Wow, he thinks again, I wonder if the old Italian shoemaker is still alive, working in the shop. He opens the door, and what do you know? There old Geppetto is holding tacks in his mouth right in the middle of banging on a heel. Unbelievable. It’s like a time warp.

“Listen,” he interrupts when the heel is finished. “Well, I just found this tag, and I know this is a bit unusual, but I was wondering if it might be possible that you could check to see if you possibly have these shoes. If you don’t mind, I’d really appreciate it.”

The old shoemaker goes into the back and you hear tumbling and rumbling and boxes moving. Finally, the old man comes out with a smile on his face.

“Well,” the guy asks, “do you have my shoes?”

“Yeah, we got ’em.”

“And can I have them?” the guy asks.

“Sure you can,” Geppetto replies. “But not right now. They’ll be ready next week.”

So you just gotta keep plugging. ’Cause it never ends.

And that’s the fun of it. To never give up. To be Don Quixote. To wake up every day ready to take on that old Meligoth, even when it looks like everything’s against you. If you reach way down inside, you can always come up with just that little extra you need. There may be almost no money in the bank. The market may have turned against you. You might not even have a job anymore. And then, just when everything seems hopeless, you roll out your newly refurbished hot dog stand, cook up a pot of onions, and suddenly the sun is shining and it’s the best day of your life all over again.

And once again, you’re on a roll.