One More....

The Breakthrough Was Always One Step Beyond the Breaking Point.

A Trolley Ride and a Revelation

Mike and I recently visited Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. We went with dear friends and their 10-year-old son. If you’ve never been, Chocolate World is the ultimate experience for anyone with a sweet tooth and a love of great American stories. You can tour a chocolate factory, build your own candy bar, stuff your own Reese's cup, and — our favorite — hop on the 75-minute trolley tour of the town.

As our trolley guide brought Milton Hershey's history to life, I found myself leaning forward in my seat. I thought I knew the Hershey story. I did not know the half of it. And by the time we rolled back into the station, I had the seed of a blog post I couldn’t wait to write.

Because Milton Hershey’s story isn’t really about chocolate. It’s about what happens when you make one more move — even when every reasonable voice in your head is telling you to quit.

One More ORDER — Milton Hershey 🍫

By 29, Milton Hershey had failed in business twice. His credit was destroyed. His reputation was in tatters. Banks laughed him out of their offices. Even his family, who had invested in his failed ventures, had mostly given up on him. All except one: his Aunt Mattie. She co-signed a $700 bank loan and put her own house up as collateral. If Milton failed to repay in 90 days, she would lose her home.

Milton worked tirelessly, making caramels by hand. He used a secret weapon he’d found in Denver: fresh milk. Most candy makers used paraffin wax. Milton’s milk caramels were creamier, richer, and longer-lasting. They were exceptional, but that wasn’t enough when time was running out.

Then, just as all seemed lost, an English candy importer visited Lancaster, Pennsylvania — tasted one of Milton’s caramels — and placed a massive export order to ship them to shops in England. Milton needed a bank loan to purchase the raw ingredients to fill the order. The bank’s cashier was so impressed, he backed the loan with his own signature.

When the check for 500 English pounds arrived, Milton Hershey was so excited he ran down the street to the bank — still wearing his apron.

That one order launched the Lancaster Caramel Company. Within a few years, it employed hundreds of workers and shipped caramels across the globe. And adding milk to his caramel formula? That same secret would become the foundation for what we now know as Hershey’s milk chocolate — the cornerstone of the world’s largest chocolate empire.

One more order. That’s all it took.

One More CALL — Bob Burg 📞

I had the privilege of sitting down with my friend Bob Burg—Hall of Fame speaker and bestselling co-author of The Go-Giver series—for a Leaders on Leadership interview. Bob’s main belief is that earnings are tied directly to the number of people served. He has lived by this for decades—but it almost didn’t happen.

About three years into building his speaking business, Bob was drowning. From the outside, things looked great. On the inside, he was treading water — and starting to sink. It was a Friday afternoon. Nothing had landed. And Bob made himself a promise: if he didn’t land something today, he would spend the weekend reading the want ads and find a full-time job.

But Bob had a habit from his sales days: at the end of a day when there were no more calls left to be made, he would make one more call. Not because it had to produce a sale. Just one more call.

So he cracked open a massive National Trade & Professional Association directory, opened it at random, and landed on the PGA of America. He almost talked himself out of it immediately — professional golfers on TV certainly don’t need a program on remembering names and faces. But the point wasn’t the fit. The point was the call.

The woman who answered explained that this division didn’t work with the pro golfers on TV — they served the golf professionals who run country clubs and teach lessons. They had a continuing education program across 42 sections nationwide. His program was a perfect fit. Over the next couple of years, Bob spoke for 32 of those 42 sections. It kept his business alive, allowed him to hire his first part-time employee, and launched the career that would eventually bring The Go-Giver to over a million readers in 30 languages.

One more call. That’s all it took.

One More CAST — The Apostle Peter 🎣

Luke 5 gives us one of the most powerful “one more” moments in all of Scripture. Peter and his partners had fished all night and caught absolutely nothing. Not a single fish. As a professional fisherman, Peter knew these waters. He knew when it was over. And it was over.

Then Jesus, who had been teaching from Peter’s boat, turned to him and said: “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Peter’s response is one of the most honest moments in the Gospels: “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.” In other words — Lord, I’m the expert here. I know this water. I know these fish. It is done.

And then Peter uttered the most transformational words a follower can ever speak: 'Nevertheless, at Your word, I will let down the net.'"

The catch was so enormous it nearly sank two boats. And Peter’s life was never the same. That one more cast — made in exhaustion, made against all professional judgment, made purely out of obedience — was the moment that changed everything. Peter left his nets that day and followed Jesus. The rest is history.

One more cast. That’s all it took.

One More BATTLE — Joan of Arc ⚔️

France had been losing the Hundred Years’ War for nearly a century. A whole generation had grown up knowing nothing but defeat, occupation, and despair. The army was demoralized. The leadership was discredited. The city of Orléans — the last major obstacle to complete English domination — was under siege and running out of hope.

Into this walked Joan of Arc. A teenage peasant girl from rural France who could not read, had never left her village, had never commanded anything, and who showed up at the court of the future king of France, claiming she had been sent by God to drive out the English and crown the king.

She was laughed out of the first audience she requested. She came back. She was dismissed again. She came back again. As our Life-Changing Classics volume on Joan — The 7 Leadership Virtues of Joan of Arc by Peter Darcy — captures so powerfully, Joan’s entire life was defined by this posture: refused, returned, refused, returned. Her banner was twelve feet long, emblazoned with the names of Jesus and Mary, and she carried it into every single battle she fought.

On April 29, 1429, Joan rode through the gates of Orléans — still under siege — and all fear vanished. She led the French to lift that siege in nine days. She then marched the army 165 miles through enemy-held territory, liberating city after city, until Charles VII was crowned King of France at Reims Cathedral. The entirety of her military career lasted less than a single calendar year.

She was 18 years old.

One more battle. That’s all it took.

Having explored these powerful stories, let’s bring it home: What’s your “One More”?

A candy maker on the verge of bankruptcy. A speaker about to read the want ads. A fisherman who had worked all night for nothing. A teenage girl told 'no' so many times she should have gone home.

None of them knew their “one more” was the one. That’s the point. You never know which call, which attempt, which step of obedience is the one that breaks it open. You only know that you haven’t made it yet.

My father, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, used to say that the difference between where you are and where you want to be is often not about talent, timing, or luck. It’s simply the willingness to do what you’re dreading one more time.

So here’s your challenge from Tremendous Leadership today:

Make the call. Cast the net. Show up again. Charge into the battle you’ve been avoiding.

Because your breakthrough might be exactly one more away.

Tremendously yours,

Dr. Tracey C. Jones