A few years back I invited Bruce Poon Tip, Founder and CEO of GAP Adventure Tours, to come and speak at an Entrepreneurship Forum I was hosting. Bruce had founded the company on pure sweat equity and had built it to a $100 million dollar enterprise, providing people with authentic small group wilderness tours all over the world.

After his presentation, I was chatting with him and asked him where he was off to next, to which he replied the airport. I offered to give him a ride which he accepted and off we went. If you know Vancouver traffic at all blockages and delays can happen anywhere at anytime and it was not long before Bruce and I found ourselves wedged on the east/west connector heading into Richmond.

Earlier in the year I had self published my first book, Start Me Up – an Entrepreneurial Guidebook and I happened to have a copy in the car, which I presented to Bruce. While we were stuck in traffic he thumbed through it while we chatted and said he liked the book and could we look at using it as an add-on for his products in someway.  You can imagine my excitement level rising as he said this. He also asked if it was available at Chapters/Indigo and I said yes, in a limited way, as it was a self published book. He asked if he could have a copy as he had seasons ticket to the Toronto Raptor’s Basketball Team and sat beside, none other than Heather Reisman, the CEO for Chapters. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Traffic did start to move and I got Bruce to the airport on time for his flight. He was most appreciative and we agreed we would stay in touch. What I do know is that my book did find it’s way to many more shelves within the Chapter’s/Indigo world. As far as I can tell, Bruce was good to his word.

So as you contemplate your next moves to help you get to where you want to go, remind yourself that while you probably won’t see the complete path at the outset, a little initiative and action can lead to results far beyond those conceived in a purely contemplative state like a board room and not all obstacles need to be cleared at the outset.