When I was 19 I found it very hard to find good jobs. In school I was in the lowest of all classes – maths, science, you name it. As you can imagine, I set myself up to believe that I wasn't worth much in the market place. My first job was as a paperboy, my second a trolley-boy, my third at a pizza shop and finally I started working for my dad because it was an easy way into a “better” job.
Today, 10 years later, I've got the family of my dreams, building two businesses, helping people achieve their dreams, creating leaders, helping the least, and many great opportunities are often offered to me that I say no to.
A constant reminder these days is Richard Branson's saying: “Opportunities are like buses – there's always another one coming!” Love this saying!
I'm telling you this because I've had first hand experience being at the bottom and feeling like only lucky people can have extraordinary success. Well let me tell you this, success is not extraordinary and it certainly is not luck. Success only takes passion, a vision for the future and the willingness, and follow through, to work on yourself and work on your dreams.
Having close friends who have achieved the million dollar mark are great examples that it doesn't take a person with supernatural powers to achieve such success. Meet a millionaire and you'll see that they are as normal as normal can be. They just chose to work on themselves, have a vision for their life and make better decisions than the average person.
I couldn't never stress enough the point of working on yourself. When you work on yourself, you learn what it takes to create success, you see the world in a completely different perspective. Knowing what you know right now will not get you to where you want to go. You need to expand your view of the world. Learn from successful people either through books, audios, seminars or directly through them. They will see things you don't see and will help you fast track the results you want to achieve.
You can achieve anything you want in life! Don't hold back, go for it with all you've got and remember to only take opportunities that are in alignment with your values. If you don't love what you do, you won't have the tenacity to continually overcome the obstacles required to create success.
As Steve Jobs said: “People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing and it’s totally true. And the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, if you’re not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it, you’re going to give up. And that’s what happens to most people, actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up being “successful” in the eyes of society and the ones that didn’t, oftentimes it’s the ones [who] were successful loved what they did, so they could persevere when it got really tough. And the ones that didn’t love it quit because they’re sane, right? Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it? So it’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of worrying constantly and if you don’t love it, you’re going to fail.”
Don't set yourself up for failure. Do what you love and love what you do.
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Alex Ford
Digital Marketing Trainer
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Do what you love and love what you do—amen! May I also add that when you do get stuck doing what you don’t love, love it anyway. So much of how we feel about something and how well we perform is attitude. I tell my kids that if they don’t do their best at the dirty jobs, like picking up the dog poo and scrubbing the toilet, I’m not promoting them to something more important and better, like baking desserts or babysitting. I need to see the attitude and hard work—the success, the passion to do a good job. Then they get a better opportunity.
I think the real world is like that, too. We may see ourselves as worth more than what we’re doing, but we also have to prove it with hard work and passion which—you’re entirely right—is much easier if we’re doing something we love.
Ah, I ramble—great post!
That’s some insight right there Christy! I used to struggle a long time ago when I did things I didn’t love. It took some work on myself to realise that I should love whatever I do. If you can love the small things, the greater things will be even more amazing to love!
Great comment! And it will definitely be something I teach my daughter now, as she grows up 🙂
Very inspirational story of your life. It is very difficult to achieve your goals that you defined over time. You did a very great job. I also have the same motto, do what you love and you can achieve anything.
Hi Julie, it’s only difficult if you believe it’s difficult. The fastest way to achieving something is by having absolute belief in yourself that you can and will achieve it! Great motto btw 🙂