March Forth: Why your company should take the day off – to take the day on

March 4th is the day to March Forth on our dreams. The March Forth movement started nearly two decades ago when, as a partner of then Babbit & Reiman Advertising, I wanted to give our employees a day for themselves to do nothing but focus on their dreams – on where they really wanted to go in their lives.

In the 1980s it was fashionable to work 24/7. I was one of those workaholics. I even had a sign prominently displayed in my office that read, “Sunday is the day of rest, for the rest.” So what do you give the most dedicated and determined workers on your staff? Their own day to take action on their own dreams.

Thinking is only half the equation. Doing is the other. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer Inc., says “Great ideas ship!” And you are that idea. But we all need a chance, a motivation and a day to motivate us. Only when we March Forth can we turn ideas into “I Dids.” The best ideas are in graveyards. They are buried with the people who had those great ideas when they were healthy but never took action.

Winning ideas that stay in our heads are losers. All of us have a book, a movie, a dream house, a prince charming, a great job within arms reach, but we don’t grab it. So I instituted a new holiday. “Don’t take the day off, take it on!” I would bellow from my pulpit.

Little did I know that this extra day I used as a bonus for working hard would become the symbol of dreams becoming reality, the beginning of a sojourn. It became a day for people who’s jobs were too small for their spirits, a time for them to leave an oppressive environment and mobilize energies to take a leap of faith, knowing full well that the net would appear.

Those who want to take action celebrate March Forth. The literal definition of power is the ability to act. Action is the great divider between whining and winning, loners and lovers, the happy and the hapless and between living your dream or someone else’s.

Benjamin Franklin believed there were three classes of people: those who are immovable, those who are movable, and those who move. March 4th is Valentine’s Day for what you really love. It’s a day to turn your hobby into a job. It is Mother’s Day and Father’s Day for new ideas. March 4th is Independence Day to declare your authenticity and to tell your co-workers or your boss who you really are. (Many who’ve written to me say they use this day to tell abusive, autocratic managers to take a hike. And others just go hiking.)

March 4th is Halloween for what scares you. This is the time to insert the word “excited” for “afraid.” It is Election Day to vote for yourself and Christmas because you get to open up the greatest gift of all – you.

March 4th is your day to take the first step toward a better you.

The first year we gave people the day off on March Forth was also my first year in business. My colleagues went skydiving, to cooking schools, one signed up to become a missionary in Guatemala, one got engaged, another separated. People forgave others and others called those forgotten.
That was a financially difficult year for me. Like many entrepreneurs, I was strapped for cash. I was living off my Visa card. That morning, I decided to fly standby – that’s all I could afford – to my hometown of New York.

Though I only had a few pennies in my pocket, my heart held the dream of making it big in advertising. Arriving in Manhattan, I made my way to see my agent who represented me and other struggling copywriters. I showed her my work and she asked if I would be interested in sharing it with a gentleman who was in New York for just one day March 4th.

He l looked at my new agency’s television spots and, three weeks later, he acquired our company, made us millionaires and catapulted us into careers only seen in the movies.

So what will you do this March 4th?