(photo: @ohutcherson)
If you’ve ever drank the Kool-Aid of one of those ” How to get ridiculously rich and passively become a millionaire in thirty days with no money down by working 4 hours per week from your kitchen table in your bathrobe” best sellers, or promotions you see every other person on facebook peddling these days…chances are you are in worse financial shape now then when you started.
I see people posting income claims from offers that would fall into this category on social media daily.
The vast majority of these self-appointed financial self-help gurus who promise these results owe their financial success to selling the Kool-Aid, not from drinking it themselves.
and Sadly….. most of their disciples have a tendency to gravitate to the path of least resistance or the door marked “Money for nothing”. “Free traffic” “let me build your business” “We’ll do the work for you” or some other nonsense about how quick and easy the profits will flow if you just buy what they are selling and listen to their obviously amateur advice.
Yet when you think about someone you actually admire, someone who has achieved the success or greatness you aspire to, you will inevitably find years of practice, hard work, patience, persistence, correction, more practice, and more corrections.
You will find a willingness to make mistakes and an uncommon ability to learn and course-correct as a result of those mistakes. (Learning doesn’t happen until something changes)
You will also find a teacher, coach, or mentor who illuminated the way so that they did not have to make all the stupid and obvious mistakes themselves.
What you will NOT find are overnight legends or effortless greatness, regardless of the field of endeavor. Championships are never won by the competitor who did the least or read a book on “how to run a marathon and not get tired”, much less worked only four hours a week towards their goal.
When we really take a hard look at the people we want to emulate, we will inevitably find that they all started at the back of the line. They practiced for countless hours, stayed in line, followed the advice of a great coach or mentor, overcame numerous obstacles, committed to being a student, practiced countless more hours, and eventually got to the front of the line.
Anyone trying to show you how to skip the line….
Is full of shit.
Here is an important point:
Anyone who achieved anything worth talking about.
Their success was not obvious at the beginning of their journey – to themselves or anyone else who happened to be watching either.
Check this out.
Warren Buffet invested full-time in the stock market for nine years before he made his first million.
I don’t know anyone who would sign up for a course or read a book titled “How to make $1,000,000 in Only 9 Years”. In 1979, Bill Gates agreed to sell Microsoft to H. Ross Perot for $20 Million.
Perot backed out of the deal. Neither of them could see the upside. A $500 Billion mistake for Perot.
In 1998, Sergei and Larry Page offered to sell their unknown start-up technology company to Yahoo! for $1 Million so they could return to their studies at Stanford. Yahoo! passed.
Four years later Yahoo! realized its mistake and tried to buy Google for $3 Billion, but the Google boys would only sell for $5 Billion. Incredibly, Yahoo! passed again.
Today Google is worth $600 Billion. Given Yahoo!’s sorry financial situation I think they realize the mistake they made.
The first technology job Steve Jobs had was with Atari, the video game company founded by Nolan Bushnell.
When steve quit Atari to found Apple, he asked Noland to invest $50,000 in his start-up in exchange for 33% ownership.
Bushnell declined because he was unable to see the potential and missed out on $275 BIllion in profit.
Here’s the point.
The questions we should be asking ourselves should never revolve around short cuts, or whats the quickest and easiest way to get there, even if its the most tempting, and those temptations will come
every. single. day.
The internet is filled with them because they are also the quickest and easiest way to make a buck for the hucksters selling them.
Building a real plan isn’t sexy.
Being consistent isn’t sexy.
Doing the work isn’t sexy.
But getting the inevitable results that follow. Is.
The questions we should be asking ourselves if we want to guarantee that we make it to the front of the line and to stop wasting time are:
What skills do I need to master to attain the success I want?
Realistically how much additional time and practice are required for me to achieve my goals?
Where do I need to practice to improve my game and thus deserve the success I want?
Where do I need to pick up the level of intensity and focus to achieve my goals faster?
Think about it.
Stay focused. Stay the course. Stay consistent.
and enjoy the inevitable rewards.
They’re worth it, and so are you.
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.