The Holy Hand Grenade: How to Get What You Really Want, Really!

By Thomas J. Gilroy

Have you been thwarted in your quest to find your lifes passion?

Has something or someone (maybe even yourself) blocked you from discovering:

who you really are? your gift? what you seek?

Then you need The Holy Hand Grenade.

Napoleon Hill said, Desire is the starting point of all achievement. Solomon said, Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Yet many people go through life with no real hope, desire, or passion and have hearts that are sick. It doesn't have to be that way.

Jesus said, I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly. Dont you want an abundant life?

Many books have tackled different aspects of who you are, what your gift is, and what you seek, but none has really covered them completely enough to help you until now! The Holy Hand Grenade is not just good information, but real answers and applications for what you really want, REALLY!

If desire, passion, and purpose are what you need, then The Holy Hand Grenade belongs in your arsenal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449785901

Thomas J. Gilroy

Thomas (TJ) Gilroy began his quest for passion and purpose more than twenty years ago. He thought God had left the “passion chip” out of him, feeling resigned to live a life of quiet desperation. Whenever he spoke to successful people who exuded passion and confidence, they could never tell him how to find the kind of passion they knew was the key to living a happy, successful life. Undeterred, he kept asking, seeking, and knocking until the door opened. TJ found the answers for a passionless world and now wants to share those solutions with you in The Holy Hand Grenade.

Book preview

PART I

Foundation

CHAPTER 1

The Killer Rabbit and the Bridge of Death

Before I get started, I recommend you read the introduction, if you haven’t already. It could save you heartburn, later.

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T HE SUMMER BETWEEN MY HIGH school graduation and my freshman year in college, I worked up the courage to ask my high school heartthrob, Ann, on a date. She was very attractive and very smart, and her dad was a Marine Corps pilot, which was exactly what I wanted to be. Ann had it all.

Some of my friends told me about a funny movie that had just come out. Ann and I barely knew each other, so I figured a funny movie would be just the ticket to break the ice. I asked Ann if she wanted to see the movie with me. To my utter amazement, she said yes.

We bought popcorn and Cokes and headed into the theater. As the movie started, I had a grave feeling I had made a mistake. Normally, opening credits for movies are ignored (no one pays attention to the credits), but not this time. There were weird comments about a majestic moose (comments made in pigeon-English/Swedish), and then the editor apologized for the credits being absurd and told the audience that those responsible had been sacked. Just as we thought things were going back to normal, this announcement appeared on the screen: "The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked. The credits have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.

Executive Producer

JOHN GOLDSTONE & ‘RALPH’ The Wonder Llama."

Then the credits morphed into a Mexican music theme and discussions about llamas.

People in the audience were laughing, and the movie hadn’t even started. Ann sat quiet and straight-faced, without as much as a giggle. My palms were soaked, and it wasn’t from holding my Coke! I knew I lost Ann five minutes into the movie, around the point King Arthur chopped off the Black Knight’s arm. Obviously fake blood was melodramatically squirting from where the Black Knight’s arm had been. The Black Knight looked at King Arthur and said defiantly, It’s only a flesh wound! I laughed out loud. (For those of you who have never seen it, I’m talking about the cult classic, Monty Python’s King Arthur and the Holy Grail³.) Ann looked at me as if I were the weirdest guy she’d ever met. To her credit, she lasted through the movie, but there was no conversation on the way home.

I want you to know I was persistent. After a disastrous first date with Ann, I went back for more—Ann and I were done, but I went back to see the movie over and over.

I probably saw Monty Python at least twenty more times, and it’s amazing how much better the movie got when I watched it with a bunch of rowdy guys and had a few beers under my belt. To this day, I’m amazed at how many people I meet who can quote lines from that movie. During a business advisory board meeting I held, a former Navy Seal captain quoted a scene from the movie. He took me completely by surprise, but everyone in the meting knew exactly what he was talking about. Even my sister and her second-year-college daughter were quoting Monty Python at a recent dinner we had together. So, I discovered there are a few women who think that movie is really funny. (My wife is not one of them: and no, her name is not Ann).

I shared this disastrous memory from my youth with you for a good reason. Believe it or not, a scene in that movie helped me set the outline for this book, and another scene helped me to find the right title.

During the Monty Python version of King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail, Arthur and his knights had to pass through a cave guarded by a fierce, terrible beast. The terrifying creature made many a brave knight soil his armor. After two valiant attempts to kill the beast, Arthur and his men retreated, found cover behind some rocks, and consulted a book of armaments for a weapon to dispose of the dreaded creature. The weapon of choice needed to kill the beast was the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. When King Arthur pulled the pin on the Holy Hand Grenade and lobbed it at the beast, sure enough, the beast was destroyed, and they continued on their quest. The scene was quite funny, especially after I realized the horrible and terrifying beast was a white bunny rabbit.

For the purposes of this book, the Holy Hand Grenade scene is a metaphor. The horrible beast guarded a place the king and his knights had to pass through to continue their journey. In other words, the creature was a PEST that had to be dealt with. As you will discover in chapter 19, PEST is an acronym. It stands for People, Emotions, Survival and Thinking. The PEST created so much fear that most would-be seekers turned back and didn’t try to continue. Others tried, as did King Arthur and his knights, to conquer their fears and overcome the PEST with only their own resources, namely their courage and swords. The cave’s entrance was littered with the bones of those foolish enough to try to conquer the beast in their own strength. In this metaphor, Arthur knew three things.

1. He wasn’t going to let a PEST, or his fear of that PEST, stop him from getting what he wanted.

2. He was smart enough not to let his pride or arrogance (about his own strength) get him killed.

3. He realized he needed additional help (in the form of a Holy Hand Grenade) to continue his quest.

The point is this: Once you decide to begin the quest for what you want most, you will face obstacles. Probably the biggest obstacle you face will be some kind of fear, rather than a ferocious killer rabbit. Some obstacles you can—and should—conquer in your own strength. But sooner or later, you are going to run into an obstacle or fear that you can’t defeat by yourself. Then you will have the same choices as King Arthur had: You can run away; you can die trying; or you can get help. If you are seeking something great from your life, you will eventually realize the need for some greater firepower. Whether you call it having another tool in your chest, or another arrow in your quiver, or a Holy Hand Grenade, you’ll need something bigger than yourself to get whatever you seek.

Further on in Monty Python’s version of King Arthur’s travels, Arthur and a handful of his knights approached the Bridge of Death. If they could cross that bridge, they believed they would find the Holy Grail. In order to pass over the bridge, they first had to contend with a horrible old man named The Bridge Keeper.

If Arthur and his knights could answer the Bridge Keeper’s questions, he would allow them to cross the bridge, but if they failed to answer all three questions correctly, they would die by being thrown into a deep gorge. The first knight answered his questions with no problem. The second knight wasn’t so lucky. After stumbling on the third question (about his favorite color), he was tossed into the gorge. When King Arthur’s turn came to answer the Bridge Keeper, the scene went something like this:

Bridge Keeper: Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see. What is your name?

Arthur: Arthur, King of the Britons.

Bridge Keeper: What is your quest?

Arthur: To seek the Holy Grail.

Bridge Keeper: What is the airspeed velocity of an un-laden swallow?

Arthur: An African or European Swallow?

Bridge Keeper: I don’t know that…oooooooh…. (The Bridge Keeper himself was flung to his death in the deep gorge.)

Then, Sir Galahad asked King Arthur, as they crossed over the Bridge of Death, How do you know so much about swallows?

Arthur: You have to know these things when you are king.

I rented the movie, again, to make sure I had correctly written the Killer Rabbit and Bridge of Death scenes. Those scenes weren’t quite as funny as they were when I viewed them nearly twenty times with my beer-drinking friends. By watching the movie, again, I did, however, decide on my book’s title: The Holy Hand Grenade, How to get what you really want, REALLY!

This book is based on three very significant questions. (No, not the ones King Arthur had to answer). Like Arthur and his knights, you have to correctly answer some of life’s questions if you want to find your Holy Grail. While you most likely will not be thrown into a deep gorge to your death if you don’t answer the questions posed in this book (although, you might want to bone up on your knowledge of African and European swallow airspeed velocity, just in case), you will be more or less a zombie in life (another movie reference). In other words, without answering these three questions, you will never be really alive or reach the greatness inside of you. In fact, you may not even start the quest to find what you really want if you cannot answer these questions.

The third question was the one that sent some of King Arthur’s knights to their deaths. So, while the first two questions were important, the third question tripped up many of the knights. I realize it’s a bit of a stretch to find significance in a silly movie, but as Saint James said, "You have not, because you ask not⁴." So, asking questions is a key to getting what you really want.

CHAPTER 2

Asking Questions

I REMEMBER, AS IF IT WAS yesterday, the day I started asking the right questions.

It was December 1987. I was lying on my bunk on the USS Okinawa, trying to get some sleep before our next mission. I served as a captain in the Marine Corps and as a Cobra helicopter pilot on a big grey boat in the middle of the Persian Gulf. Iran and Iraq were busy trying to kill each other in a messy war, and we were there to protect our oil tankers from being sunk by the Iranians.

Our preparation for going to the Persian Gulf and the possibility of going into combat had been very exciting. Preparing for a real mission (as opposed to regular training missions) was quite intense. We also had 300 infantry Marines on board. All of them were itching for action.

As a Captain on my second flying tour, I was at the pinnacle of my career as a Marine officer. I was still a junior officer but had eight years of experience, and the experts said that particular time in a Marine officer’s career was where it was at. But, it didn’t feel that way.

Though Christmas was just around the corner, no one on the ship felt in a holiday mood. Tossing and turning in my bunk, I could think only about how much I missed my new wife. We had married the previous January and being in the Persian Gulf in December meant I was missing our first Christmas and our first anniversary. I was fully aware this was what I signed up for, and if my squadron had been engaged in something more important than protecting oil tankers, I might have felt better about my place of duty and missing my anniversary.

I vividly recall the night in the Persian Gulf when asking the right questions set me on the right course. Lying on my bunk, I was awake and staring up at the overhead (ships don’t have ceilings; they have overheads). I recall my stateroom was illuminated by the dim red light of a warship at night, and that a deep sense of emptiness suddenly came over me. It was as if I awoke to the reality that I wasn’t doing what I was meant to do with my life, and at that moment I knew there had to be more. I remember asking God, out loud, Is this it? Is this what I am supposed to do for the rest of my life?

Maybe your moment was the same; maybe it was different; or maybe you haven’t had your moment, yet. Still, most people eventually ask this question: Is this it?

Being a Marine captain and pilot was what I had wanted since I was a child. I was six years old when my dad served as the Sergeant Major of the Marine Barracks at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. One day, he took me down to the flight line on the base and somehow got a pilot to let me sit in the cockpit of a Marine A-4 Skyhawk jet. Pilots sometimes flew to Puerto Rico from the U.S. mainland on training flights. More often than not, those training flights were booze runs, because they could buy cases of alcohol, without paying taxes, and carry them back to their U.S. bases.

As a six-year-old kid sitting in the cockpit of a really cool jet, I was in heaven. I was so small that I couldn’t see over the instrument panel. When the pilot put his helmet on me, it was so big that when I turned my head, the helmet stayed still while my head rotated in it. I couldn’t see a thing, but that didn’t matter. I thought the experience was great! I visualized being a Marine pilot from that point until it became a reality. But that night, while lying on a bunk on the USS Okinawa I came to the sudden realization that being a career Marine wasn’t it for me.

The problem was that I had no idea what it was. The idea of being a Marine pilot was probably more of a romantic notion based on the heroic stories I grew up with rather than on the realities of the profession. My father, a World War II and Korean War Veteran who was highly respected by his peers and his family, was my hero. The realities of the not-so-romantic profession, the boredom of life on a ship, and being separated from the wife I loved made me question whether I really wanted to continue as a pilot for the rest of my life. There had to be more. To make matters worse, no one I knew had figured it out for themselves, either. I asked my other pilot buddies about their decisions to stay in the Marine Corps. I sought advice from my senior officers and even asked the Marine colonel who was in charge of all the Marines on the ship how he made his career choice. Everyone seemed to be just going with the flow, not really making any decisions at all. Once I asked the right question, I became aware of how many people were just going from day to day, without real hope of realizing any greatness in their lives.

So the hunt was on. The more questions I asked about what people wanted to do with their lives, the more I realized that people I looked up to were in the same predicament I was. The really scary part was how many of them were resigned to not getting any answers.

I began asking myself why they weren’t seeking answers. At the same time, my wife, Mary, was going through some of the same turmoil with her Navy career. We both decided to take our disillusions and turn them into actions. Even though we enjoyed our military careers, we knew it was time to find what we were really supposed to do with our lives. Neither of us knew what that was.

We just knew we weren’t going to find it in the military. So, we resigned our commissions and ventured into the business world in search of it. Shortly after resigning from the Marine Corps, I heard this quote: The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. I didn’t know who said that or the circumstances surrounding that quote, but those words nailed what I observed in myself and in most people I knew. About two years ago, I discovered this second part of that quote: What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. Both sentences making up that quotation were written by Henry David Thoreau in the 1860s. I found Thoreau’s quote reassuring in that I was not the only one who thought those thoughts. On the other hand, the quote was disconcerting in that so few people seemed to have answers that could make a difference. The quiet desperation I started to see all around me became my reason to ask more questions.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Henry David Thoreau

CHAPTER 3

The Socratic Method

W HEN I RETURNED FROM THE Persian Gulf, even though I was sure the Marine Corps was not it for me, I did not immediately leave. I served with the marines for two more years before I finally made the leap into the real world. Ever hear about the three cats? Question: If three cats are sitting on a fence, and two of them decide to get off, how many cats will be left? Answer: Three. Deciding and doing are not the same things. Even though I had decided to make a change in my life, it took a while for me to summon the courage to actually do it.

It was my good fortune that, as Mary and I were preparing to leave the military, we were introduced to the Amway business. I’ll bet some of you are wincing at that statement. Actually, my overall experience in Amway was pretty good. We achieved what is called the Ruby level, and several great things came from the time we spent in that type of business. Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad5 and several other good books, recommends that people wanting