39 of 100 Success is No Accident

Success takes hard work.  A discussion with anyone that's successful will reveal just how truly hard it can be.   The stories you'll hear from these people can be revealing.

When people are "NOT successful" (and I'll let you define what that means), they often talk about others that are with a slant of jealousy. There's the implication they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.  You'll hear, "They probably inherited the money."  You hear about the advantages they had that made it possible for them to succeed.

I watched a online video that started with an entrepreneur leaving his VERY nice house, dressed extremely well jumping into a Maserati.  He's narrating the scene explaining that unless you know his story, you can't appreciate what it took to get here.  The video then shows through flashbacks all it took over the years for this guy to make it.

Before you make it big, no one notices you.  When you make it big, people see the perks, the toys, the fruits of you work.  It's easy to assume this just happened.

I'm on year five of my business.  I'm on year three working full time with no other job providing the safety net.  I'm still in the "work really hard" or else stage.

For as long as I remember, I've wanted my own business.  I tried it 15 years back and my business got noticed.  It led to me getting hired to head up the Internet practice of a consulting firm.  It was the right move back then, but it was a step forward followed by a step back.

This time I have a plan.  I have a business model that works.  Year after year I'm seeing progress with increased revenue.  But it is so, so, so much hard work.

I have no regrets, but I've made sacrifices I never expected to make.  I have gone through levels of stress like I never imagined.  My wife has been an angel for putting up with all this.  At the beginning she wasn't as enthusiastic as I was and conversations about "getting a real job" would come up.

I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not.  My message to anyone toying with the idea is pray for success, but expect the worse.  Then take your worse case scenario and think even worse.

You're doing something most people will tell you is outright insane.  You see something where others see nothing  That's why the ones that become successful reap the benefits.  They took to what others consider an insane risk and they bet their very lives on this idea working.

Then again, a true entrepreneurs is cut from a different mold.