A Monday Morning Memo from 2003

Until recently, I always assumed that rainbows disappeared from sight long before they touched the earth and that searching for the end of the rainbow was nothing more than a game for the gullible. Or that if they did touch the earth, that the rainbow moved with the viewer, so that you could spend all day chasing one and never be closer than you were when you started.

But now I know the truth: rainbows do reach the ground and you can walk into them and through them and be wrapped in luminous ribbons of color. I know it because I’ve seen it, done it, been there.

The rainbow was a big one, making landfall in the center of a new-mown lawn at the southeast corner of Koenig and Lamar in Austin, Texas. Pennie, Rex and Jake were all with me, as well as Woody Justice, the original client of my firm and a very dear friend. (Not many years ago, back when Woody and I were both desperately poor, I made a solemn pledge to him that I would do all I could to help him succeed, and he pledged the same to me. For my part, I began telling Springfield, Missouri what a wonderful jeweler Woody was. For his part, the Woodster began telling the whole world what a marketing wizard he had found in me.)

Now back to the corner of Koenig and Lamar: seeing the end of a rainbow physically touching the earth not 100 feet in front of me, I now had a new question: where was the leprechaun and his pot of gold?

Having had a few months to think about it, I’ve decided that there can only be three possible answers:

1. There is no pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
2. Someone else had gotten there first and had already taken it.
3. The leprechaun was riding in the car with me, and had already given me his pot of gold.

If you’ll look at the illustration of Woody Justice on page 31 of my first book, The Wizard of Ads, I think you’ll agree that the third possibility is not only possible, but more than a little likely.

How about you? Do you have a friend who works day and night to help you reach your goals? Is there someone in your life who always cheers you on, no matter what? If so, I think that perhaps you, too, have touched the colors at the end of the rainbow.

Be a great friend.

Roy H. Williams

UPDATE 2016 – Woody passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, but I keep his number programmed in my iPhone. Part of me believes if I call that number, he will answer. – RHW