| A couple of things happened over the past week or so that got me thinking about this week’s topic. When you want to do great things, you have to put in a great effort. And before we dive deeper, I want to clarify that when I talk about great things, I mean extraordinary. Building a successful business, becoming a star, becoming the top in your field, turning around a failing department of some sort. This does not in any way diminish the greatness of simply being a responsible, independent, productive citizen–being great at your job, raising your family and participating in your community. That is its own type of great. What I am talking about is the person that people look at and mistakenly say he or she was lucky. The anomalies. The standouts. The pioneers. The point is, it is rarely luck. I know that may sound so simple and so, almost, cliche. But it is true. And I don’t think people take that truth seriously enough. At the very least, many, many people don’t fully grasp what a “great effort” really is. A great effort requires skill, timing, planning, honesty, innovation and, most importantly, sacrifice. And that last one is the one that many people miss. I think they miss it because when they look at examples of people that have accomplished great things, the breadth and depth of sacrifice is nearly impossible to convey. So many people look at examples of success and see what they mistake as luck or maybe even nefarious things (admittedly, there are some examples of nefarious too). So, for the sake of this writing, lets go through those ingredients: Skill–believe it or not, this is probably the least important out of the list. Skill can be learned along the way. It can also be hired out. It is important, especially if your goal is to build a BETTER something. Timing–this is most often confused with luck. Sometimes just doing the right things AT the right time is the magic bullet. How do you do this? Stay in touch with the market you will be participating in. Learn it, read it, study it, live it. Ask a lot of questions from a lot of people that are potential consumers or stakeholders. Don’t be too eager or too hesitant. Understand what your market will forgive as learning curve. But also don’t hesitate. You can improve along the way. Planning–this one traps so many would be innovators. Failure to launch. I have this idea, I can draw it and articulate it. I can plan around it. But if the plan isn’t perfect, I don’t want to do it. And then enters anxiety, fear and hesitation. “Once the cat is out of the bag, I can’t put it back in” “You only get one chance to make a first impression” All the cliches. The reality is, you need a plan to START and a plan to improve along the way. Honesty–This is the one that traps so many skillful people. If you are good at something, people should naturally want it, right? Wrong. Sometimes YOU are the problem. You have to look at the whole situation, the people involved–including yourself– and say, “if I want this to work, I have to delegate or maybe even just get out of the way.” This is so hard for people that build things–businesses, ideas, products. Is your ego stronger than your desire for success? Innovation–of course, what are you offering that the other guy isn’t? Maybe its a better product. Maybe its a funnier commercial. Maybe it is a better price. I don’t know. But it has to be something that is not out there. And the crazy part is, it doesn’t have to necessarily be a BIG something that is not already out there. Sometimes, it is a very small annoyance that you remove. Sacrifice–This is the last one on the list. And it is the hardest. What are you willing to give up? You can’t do everything. Are you willing to quit the security of your 9-5? Are you willing to miss kids’ ball games? Are you willing to miss vacations? Are you willing to sacrifice friendships? Are you willing to sacrifice relationships? Are you willing to sell your house? To live in lesser means? All of this is possible. Friends may find you not as fun anymore. They may mock you and ask when you are going to hit it big. They may call you a fanatic. You may pour all your money into a venture and have to scrape by till it works. Your spouse may say that they don’t know you anymore because you are so obsessed with success. You may get so focused on something that you lose sight of everything else. You forget to eat. You forget to sleep. You spend 100 hours a week on it. You know that if you aren’t working, someone else is and they will beat you. You don’t go on vacation because no one is there to fill in for you. You do the same things over and over and over and over and over and hope that this time it works the way you want it to. And eventually it does. You do all this until you earn the ability and the right not to. And it is hard. Way, way harder than any book can convey. It IS an obsession. You ARE a fanatic. These are the ingredients to great things. Some rare cases have people skip a step. It is possible. But generally, you do this before you reap the rewards. And look, if this isn’t you, that’s ok. This is the person that swings big and often misses but sometimes hits a grand slam. This is the person that succeeds and you are envious of. This is the person you think got lucky when they opened a business/became a premiere athlete/hit stardom on the stage. There are plenty of great things that happen for people that don’t do the above. And, back to honesty, perhaps you aren’t destined to do “great” things. It’s ok. Some of us are happy doing good things and accomplishing our greatest things on the quiet side. BUT, if you want to stand out. If you want to do something huge. If you want to elevate something beyond its perceived capability, these are the ingredients. You can’t plan on a shortcut. |
