Not So Secret Success | ihavethoughts... V3...

When I was little it was crammed into my mind that if I work hard I will be successful and I think most people feel the same way. It is logical and makes you feel like there is nothing to it. Work hard= success. It makes sense, but I know many people that work as hard if not harder than many of the most successful people. So what makes them any different? I can’t seem to figure this out. Are they just good luck? do they know some secret that I don’t? What in the heck am I doing wrong?

Something must be missing; there must be more to the equation than just hard work. Then one day out of nowhere I got a break, a great opportunity was presented to me and I capitalized. Things started to roll in my direction. But the funny thing was that the break I was giving was not in the area I was working hardest in, I was arguably not work hard at all. But any hard work I put into this opportunity came out ten fold and it only took one third the effort as before. In that moment I had an epiphany, maybe hard work does not create the success, it only enhances it. Maybe the key to success is taking advantage of the opportunities I was given. So I started taking all sort of opportunities but they all had very different outcomes, both successful and disastrous.

Now I was in a bind, I could not figure out what made an opportunity great for me rather than an epic fail. I started to analyze each of my past opportunities and the outcomes. I realized that many of these opportunities were not very good choices to begin with; just because I was given something does not mean it will be utilized to my expectations. This is when I realized that success starts with opportunity and is enhanced with hard work but it is successful because of the decision. I started to see that if I made a great decision then I almost didn’t have to do anything to be successful, any work offered positive results.

Now I focus on making smart choices for myself, my family (as of now the wife and the pups), and our business knowing that the outcomes may not always be positive but at least I know that if the opportunity is truly meant to be it will happen and if not I will move to find the next one. I still work as hard as I can on each decision but now it is easier to see the great ones and avoid the disasters.

My Best decision yet.... it pays off everyday... ;)