I spent this past weekend at my first Mastermind meeting in San Diego.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s a process inspired by Andrew Carnegie and shared by Napoleon Hill in his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich. It’s described there as “a coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”

In the case of this particular Mastermind, there were about 60 of us entrepreneurs gathered from around the world.

The US, France, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Japan, Vietnam and Canada were all represented.

I was a newbie, attending for the first time, but the group gathers twice a year to share resources and connections, to provide accountability and inspiration, and to support each other in achieving personal and business goals.

What I found particularly inspiring was that among this group of very successful social entrepreneurs, everyone — every single one — had a story of personal struggle or had overcome a major obstacle in their life.

Some of these stories were particularly dramatic.

A bodybuilding champion struck down in his prime by a debilitating injury…An ex-convict…A man abused and abandoned by his family…The Wall Street guy who suddenly found himself driving a taxi…A young pregnant mom told to say goodbye to her husband and two-year-old son because she’d never survive her emergency operation...A successful woman who woke up one morning and realized she had no job and nowhere to live.

But no matter how difficult or tragic the personal obstacle, no matter how frightening or humiliating or embarrassing the personal story, every single person in that room had met their struggle head-on and pushed forward. And they were all running businesses that championed social causes or were seeking to serve others in big ways.

The bodybuilder who used to be champion of the world is now a champion FOR the world inspiring today’s youth. The ex-convict became mayor of his hometown. The taxi driver created a business helping thousands to tell their own inspiring stories on network television. The mom watched her son grow up alongside his baby sister and now helps major corporations to bring their manufacturing operations back from overseas. And the woman who woke up without a job or place to live, well, that was me.

Was it easy? NO!

Did they feel beat up and broken down? YOU BET!

Did it feel like things would never turn around for them? UH-HUH!

So what’s holding YOU back?

Because whether your goal for 2012 is to lose 10 pounds or participate in a triathalon, whether you hope to one day climb Mount Everest or climb the corporate ladder and be CEO, whether you want to turn your knitting from a hobby into a business or leave corporate America and join the Peace Corps, whether you want to spend more time with your family or travel the world, the only thing standing in the way of making those things happen is YOU.

You tell yourself that it’s because you don’t have the money, or you don’t have the time, or you don’t have the education. You think you can’t because you have a husband or kids or weigh too much or hurt too much.

But they’re really just excuses.

Because someone, somewhere, faced a similar or even higher hurdle and found a way to sail over it. And it means you can find a way over your hurdles, too.

So what are you waiting for?

Today’s beautiful vintage dress and coat set was designed by Ronald Amey in the 1960s. I adore Ronald Amey’s clothes, but, sadly, we lost this brilliant artist to heart disease when he was only 52 years of age.

And none of us know how many minutes are left on our clocks. We don’t know if our Someday will ever arrive.

So the only time we can make our dreams happen is NOW. Today.

So be bold.

Take a baby step toward your dreams right NOW. Today.

Go ahead.

Because that’s what you do when you’re a brave Vintage Crusader!

Available at Archive Vintage.

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