Did I know it before I did it?

It was an uncanny find. I was going through papers and old pictures and ran across this one. It’s a picture of me with my brother Bobby. We were little guys who had just completed a very unique “snowman” which wasn’t a snowman at all. It was a Snow Dog.

We chose to build a snow dog because from my earliest memories I LOVED dogs, puppies especially!,  But I knew I had just found a sign with this picture. 

A sign that - I probably knew it before I did it.

Did I know that one day I would create a big, floppy dog that looked similar to the snow dog creation in this picture? And did I ever dream that dog would become one of the world’s most loved toys and would generate a $1 billion in retail sales?

Did that little boy standing in the Ohio snow have any idea of the life he would live as he traveled towards his destiny? The destiny he didn’t know was his?

If he knew it, he didn’t know it.

That little boy went on to do the right things in life. He got married, got a job at Ford Motor Company. It was a good life. Ford was a good company and working on the assembly line wasn’t glorious but it gave me the ability to make a good life for my family. 

Then one day as I was driving and my daughter was playing with her favorite soft sculptured doll, I had a moment. A moment that changed my life and my life’s purpose.

As I drove and watched her love on her doll, I suddenly found myself pounding on the steering wheel and loudly proclaiming, “That’s it. That’s it. “

And what was it? 

It was the vision for Pound Puppies. Children love pets too so why not create a dog that could be rescued by children and loved again? 

I could not contain myself. I HAD to create this toy. I was no toymaker and all the odds were against me.

But deep inside, I knew I was going to make it happen. No matter what the circumstances. No matter the lack of experience. No matter the lack of money. I was called to create this toy. I just knew it.

And I did.

The story of getting there is another story filled with exciting opportunities, missteps, risk taking and pit falls and aside from all that, success was the ending of the beginning of my calling.

Let’s “Paws for a Moment” and think about your calling. I truly had no idea I was destined to be a toy maker and maybe being a toy maker will not change the world but it will or can change a child’s world and that’s pretty cool. I’m happy with my calling. Are you happy with yours? If not, maybe it’s time for a walk down memory lane where you take a look at your past because you might have left your calling there. My calling melted when the sun took my snow dog away and years later that dog came back and changed my life. Maybe your calling wants to change yours?