Finishing On Top: How To Achieve Personal Goals, Become Successful, And Experience Happiness Through The Power Of Finishing

By Sherman Toppin

It's true. You can become more successful and experience happiness if you simply finish your personal goals. The problem for many of us, however, is actually finishing. In this exciting new book, Sherman Toppin shows how to use the power of finishing to achieve the things we dream about. Don't let another moment pass. It's time for you to start finishing on top!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherman Toppin
• Release date: Feb 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9780985953034

Sherman Toppin

Sherman Toppin is an experienced attorney, entrepreneur and seasoned educator. He owns and operates three thriving companies: Sherman Toppin Law Firm, a boutique practice concentrating in real estate matters; Sherman Toppin Real Estate, a brokerage providing receivership and property management services throughout Pennsylvania; and Toppin Communications, a newly established publishing company for his unique brand of writing. Mr. Toppin earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, and received his Juris Doctor from the College of William & Mary School of Law. He is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia, and represents clients in both state and federal courts in these jurisdictions. Mr. Toppin’s law practice concentrates in real estate matters which range from simple residential closings to complex commercial deals. Over the years, Mr. Toppin has helped hundreds of individuals and many companies obtain good results through his law firm. Proudly, Mr. Toppin was voted the 60th President of the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia, an affiliate of the National Bar Association, by practicing attorneys in the region. In academia, Mr. Toppin is an Adjunct Faculty member at Temple University Real Estate Institute, where he teaches Real Estate Law and other licensure courses for brokers and agents. Also, Mr. Toppin is a regular faculty presenter for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, where he instructs continuing education courses for attorneys in a variety of real estate subjects. In the media, Mr. Toppin has appeared in several episodes of HGTV’s show “Bang for your Buck” as a Real Estate Expert, to provide property valuation data and marketing expertise. Also, Mr. Toppin is routinely invited by local radio personalities to speak on real estate issues and to forecast market trends. Finishing on Top is Mr. Toppin’s first book. With this publication, Mr. Toppin aims to establish a movement to help people achieve their personal best through the power of finishing.

Book preview

Chapter01

This book is short. If it were any longer, people who have trouble finishing things may not finish it. They would probably get a good start, but then would get distracted for any number of reasons and stop. Weeks later, this book would be lying around their homes like so many other unfinished things in their lives. Years later, this book might come up in a random conversation. Wanting to be included, they’ll interject, Yeah, I started reading that book, but I never finished it. Someone else, then, will get to tell them how it changed their lives.

I understand people who have problems finishing things. I had the same problem. My daily to-do lists never got done. Most of my home improvement projects remained unimproved. When I started to write this book, I had the equivalent of two briefcases full of creative writing—films, poems, plays, sermons, and books— all at various stages of incompletion. In fact, this very book lay unfinished among my papers for over 12 years after I conceived the idea.

I may as well tell you the whole story. In 1999, I was feeling very frustrated about the mounting number of things that I had started but not finished in my life. Then, out of the blue, I admitted to myself, I am failing because I’m not finishing anything! So I went through my unfinished things one-by-one and really thought about what had happened with each one. Specifically, I wanted to know why I kept stopping after having such a good start. More importantly, I wanted to figure out why, after stopping, I couldn’t get started again.

As I thought about each unfinished thing in my life, I noticed a pattern. Then, I noticed another pattern, and then another. Finally, like a doctor observing a patient’s symptoms, I diagnosed my condition: "Can’t Finishit." I coined it as a condition lethal to finishing. Some of the chronic symptoms included negative thinking, poor planning, wrong friends, bad time-management, insufficient funding, lack of interruption defenses, and overall weak resolve.

In 1999, I wrote down everything pertaining to my case of Can’t Finishit in one of my journal books. Afterward, I decided to turn my scribbling into a book, which seemed like a great idea. There had to be millions of people out there suffering from this horrible condition who could benefit from my personal research and self-exploration. Unfortunately, soon after daydreaming about the global success of my book, I stopped writing it. My initial notes for the book lay untouched among the clutter of my other unfinished writing for three years. In fact, I forgot about the book altogether.

In late 2002, I stumbled upon those notes again and was shocked that I had let such a great book idea go dormant. I was so inspired by my idea that I made a commitment to myself to finish it this time. But, I didn’t. I typed up my notes, added some additional pages, and gave my book a tentative title—only to stop yet again.

Two years later, in 2004, I stumbled upon the saved file of this manuscript while scrolling through a miscellaneous folder in my computer. I had finished less than five pages of typed text in five years. I felt embarrassed that I had written so little during such a long time, and once more I recommitted myself to finishing this book. I edited the pages that I previously typed and thought about how to structure each chapter. This time around, I managed to complete approximately 20 pages. Then, I stopped again. I don’t even know why I stopped.

A year later, in summer 2005, I recommitted myself (again) to finishing this book, vowing to complete it by my birthday, Sept. 30. That didn’t happen. It was a busy year for me as I was also starting a law firm and real estate brokerage. I simply did not focus on my book. The idea for this book, however, continued to weigh on my mind as an unresolved goal that I needed to achieve. Nevertheless, I refused to prioritize it above my other life objectives.

Every New Year’s Eve, from 2005-2010, I promised myself I would finish the book. Yet during those five years, I didn’t work on the book at all.

By 2011, I had enough. Twelve years had passed since the idea for this book first came to me and I was nowhere near finished. I felt like a dentist with cavities, who never flosses and smokes teeth staining cigarettes, yet is writing a book on proper dental care. I was the guy that started writing a book about finishing but couldn’t finish it.

Then, a crippling thought occurred to me: Just quit writing the book. You have no credibility writing a book to help others overcome problems with finishing if you cannot help yourself finish. I had just about lost faith in myself when the most unexpectedly strengthening counter-thought came to me, I wish there was a book to help me finish writing this book about finishing. I had reached rock bottom. In my despair, I needed my own unwritten book.

So that’s what did it. That desperation led me to challenge myself one final time. I told myself I would finish this book no matter what, using the very tools I would recommend to others. If I was right about the content of this book, I would become an author— and, finally, a finisher. With renewed motivation, I blew the dust off my keyboard and resumed writing this book.

Putting things in perspective, over the 12 years that I took to write this book, there were some things I did finish. I always finished things that other people asked me to do, such as tasks required for my employers or assignments given to me by organizations for which I volunteered. I noticed, however, I had trouble finishing things I wanted to do for my own personal advancement. Subsequently, I became very unhappy with my life because I never accomplished the things that I really desired to do and felt the most passionate about, which for me was writing.

Although the list of things you cannot seem to finish may be different from mine, it still hinders your life progress, it still limits your achievements, and it still creates dissatisfaction with your life. You struggle to get ahead in life because you do not finish things that could help you move forward.

Polite people may inquire of you, What ever happened with that thing you were working on? Rude people will just provoke you with the question, How come you never finished? You may reply with all variety of excuses. Some of you may blame yourselves. Some of you may blame others. Some of you may blame the circumstances of your lives. No matter the reason, the reality is the same. You didn’t finish what you started. It’s frustrating, embarrassing, and it keeps captive your true potential in life. Starting things you never finish is like having dreams that never come true. Despite all the other things that are going well in your life, if you do not finish the special things you started for yourself you will harbor a deep, crippling discontentment. This is because much of the happiness, success and power of life are sometimes waiting on the other side of unfinished things.

Don’t expect people to understand your problem finishing things. They won’t. Some people will point to all of the other things you have finished, as if that will make your unfinished things go away. Some will try to have you believe that you are incapable of finishing what you desire and should not waste time and money pursuing it. Ignore all of these voices because no matter what anyone says, the reality is undeniable: You have to finish what you began, or you may die unfulfilled.

Imagine if you could finish just one of the things you desire for personal advancement. It could catapult your life through a salary cap, through a glass ceiling, through a slump, through a dead-end,through past failures, through doubt and fear, through the rat race, through depression and low self-esteem, through a dry spell, through poverty, through the worst of times to the happiest season of your life.

This book contains vital guidance for your future. It incorporates my life experiences as a father, employer, professor, entrepreneur, writer, lawyer, and leader. I am certain that something within this book will help you finish a wide range of things that affect your family, career and social life, as well as your inner being (which encompasses your ambitions, goals, hopes, and dreams). So, you need to finish reading this book today! Let this mark a turning point in your life. Writing this book was a turning