Did you know that nothing comes to those who wait? The old saying, “Good things come to those who wait,” is a lie. Oh yea…and patience is not a virtue.
The truth is, that great things come to those who work their ass off! To those who never stop hustling, and refuse to react to the small voice in their head that taunts them to just give up or throw in the towel. Waiting plus patience equals a failure to commit to what you want out of life. If you know in your heart that the path you are on will lead you further from your personal goals, then I dare you to crank the e-brake on life, and turn the wheel in a different direction. If you continue to “wait” for your chance, your opportunity or for just the right moment when someone acknowledges your abilities, then you could be left sifting through the ashes of your once fully engulfed passion.
Nothing stifles growth more than a failure to promote yourself. When I design ads, I always look at the product or service I am promoting and ask myself, “Who cares?” Really. What about this product makes anyone take a second look? Their lives are busy, and what could I possibly say or do to steal away their attention?
The same exact questions need to be posed when self-examining your own life. Now, I’m not talking about asking “who cares about me?,” Of course you have friends, family and co-workers who care about your well-being. I want you to think about who, other than those listed above, will be looking for your talents in an attempt to help you achieve your ultimate vision of success. Don’t be surprised if the list is a little light. People are all selfish in their own way. And that’s not a bad thing. I hope they are so focused on me and I that they strive every day to make themselves better. They read books, hold a conversation with a stranger and live a life full of curiosity.
I want you to be selfish!
It’s easy to look at people who seem to have it all figured out and think that one day, a giant bag of money fell from the sky and deposited itself in their bulbous bank accounts. I know I’ve glared in the direction of that same guy wanting to know why it was so easy for him, while I’ve been working my butt off just to pay the utility bill! You know what I was, and I’m sure you are too?
Jealous.
But behind every feeling of jealousy, there’s a somewhat comforting realization that maybe they too were in my shoes five, ten or fifteen years ago. They too were pinching pennies to simply go on living a life full of sacrifices while pursuing a lofty goal. In fact, they too may have stared at that guy across the table, and glared in similar fashion as their body ached with jealousy. You see, anyone that has anything of value earned that stuff through hard, unrelenting work and insane amount of moxie!
And if you ask them how long they sat back waiting for “their time” to come, I’m sure they will look at you cockeyed, grin and then exclaim that they never-evvvvveeerrrrrr waited a single minute for something they wanted out of life. Waiting promotes the idea that you sat stagnant counting away the minutes, all the while hoping for some timely alignment of the stars and moon. To a person of unparalleled success, the idea of waiting for something would be like asking them to quit and give up on life.
The people who want more out of life know that waiting is for suckers!
When you’re sitting at coffee telling your best friend that if you could have the perfect job it would be (blank), and they respond with, “Hey! I know a guy who does that. You should give them a call,” and then proceed to write down the guy’s number on the napkin, what do you do next?
Do you (circle only one):
A) Get all excited, stuff the napkin in your pocket, dream of what it would be like to do (blank) and go home to spy on your ex-girlfriend’s page on Facebook
Or
B) Get all excited, stuff the napkin in your pocket, dream of what it would be like to do (blank) and go home and call that dude…IMMEDIATELY!
Sadly, most people will reluctantly choose option A. They’ll tell themselves that now’s not the time. Your rent is going up next month, and how could you possibly think of quitting your current job to focus 100% of your energy doing (blank)? You’ll come up with over a dozen excuses, which will all make sense to you, and the next load of laundry you throw in the washer will inevitably turn your dream into paper machete.
*Side note* My dad says that “excuses are like buttholes. Everyone has one and they all stink!” Not a great mental picture, but you get the point. Stop making them!
But hey! Who am I to judge? I myself have failed to act on more occasions than I can count. I’ve tossed numbers, deleted emails and cancelled appointments because I was scared, and didn’t want to lose the tight grip I had on the security of a job, house and a nice truck. I mean, without those things, what would people think of me?
Which brings me back to my first point à they don’t care!
Outside of your tight-knit circle of friends and family, strangers do no give a crap about what car you drive, the size of your house or the calculated deposits in your account. So don’t live a life based on what you think society expects from you. If you have a burning desire to re-direct your path of existence, then now is the time to start calling those napkin numbers.
This post was not authored as ammunition for you to wake up and tell your boss to shove it. No my friend, this post was written so that you better understand that there’s no such thing as a pipe dream. Sure, people are going to ask you to be “realistic,” but those who matter most, your family and friends, want to see you succeed. Heck, I want to see you succeed! If what you want out of life is to feel like you’ve made a difference, help others pursue their goals or to simply enjoy what you do for money, there’s no single person on this planet that’s qualified to tell you it’s not realistic. They’re just saying that because they know that they live their own lives smack dab in the middle “Lameville.”
They don’t have the courage you have to take the action necessary to construct a life full of freedom, joy and downright awesomeness!
WARNING: Your journey will be terrifying. Think of the craziest roller coaster you’ve ever been on, and now add lightning bolts and the creepy kids from the movie Children of the Corn. Some serious whacked out stuff will happen! And if you get scared, just turn back, quit, throw in the towel, and wave the white flag. But what you’ll experience on your return trip to Lameville will be twice as scary with a dash of shame.
If this plan of attack sounds like the ramblings of someone who’s massively wealthy with a pet dolphin and a car whose doors open up (btw…love the new BMW i), well you are mistaken my friend. As I write this, I’m about one sixteenth of the way through my journey (and that’s a completely uneducated guess). I have no idea when I will reach the end. And honestly I hope I never do!
Ted Turner once said that his dad set goals that were too easy to reach, and once he realized he had come to the end of his journey, he never took another step forward. He stopped dreaming and eventually died of depression.
Life is worth living to its fullest. I never want to be done learning new things, new ways to make myself a better businessman, father, husband and friend. If my eyesight goes I’ll listen to audio books, if my hearing goes I’ll learn Braille and if my fingers are chopped off as a result of a freak accident while competing on the show Iron Chef America, I’ll hire the best doctors in the world to inject knowledge into my brain like on the Matrix (“I know Kung fu!”)
OK. I’m going to dismount from my proverbial soapbox now. My legs are quivering, and my throat is dry. And as my late grandfather used to say when he wanted to get off the phone with me…
“I have no more words.”
