What’s the difference between a college kid making $15 bucks a night selling candy at professional sporting events and a local celebrity bringing in $500 bucks a night from those same grandstands?

Attitude, action and the willingness to be more, to be better.

In 1996, Dave Kerpen was a college student selling concessions at Boston sporting events. Concession sales is a commissioned gig, if you don’t sell, you don’t eat and since Dave was the low man on the totem pole, he was assigned the arena’s worst seller: Crunch n Munch.

On his first night out he sold 12 boxes and made the minimum commission $15.

Before going back for his second night’s work, he decided that getting into the games for free and pocketing $15 wasn’t good enough. He needed to make a living at this so he had to step up his game. When he showed up in the stands for his encore performance, he made it just that, a performance. He sang a little, danced a little, cracked a few jokes, screamed, shouted and hammed it up good.

That night he sold three times as many boxes of sweet and salty goodness.

And now that he had plan, he ramped the schtick up even farther, catching the eye of the arena cameraman and The Crunch n Munch Guy was born. Soon, he didn’t need to march through the stands hawking snacks. The crowd came to him, stood in line for AUTOGRAPHED boxes from the Crunch N Munch guy and sent him back to his dorm room with $500 a night.

Kerpen is the first to admit he had no discernable talent – can’t sign, can’t dance. But what he did have was the willingness to take a chance, to take a leap of faith. The willingness to put himself out there.

Because bashful salespeople have skinny children.

Once he decided he was an entertainer and celebrity, once he acted AS IF he were an entertainer and celebrity, then that’s exactly what the crowds treated him like.

And he was rewarded by that standard.

Nobody cares what you say you are, what you say you’re going to do.

Quit talking about it and do something about it.

People care about what you do, the actions that you take, the decisions that you make.

Act AS IF, you are already everything you want to someday be.

Act AS IF you’re leading the life you were born to lead.

Positive thinking can make you feel better but positive acting is what makes shit happen.

Terry Lancaster is the VP of Making Sh!t Happen at Instant Events Automotive Advertising, father of 3 teenage daughters and a Beer League Hockey All Star, as if there could ever be such a thing. You can connect with Terry on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.