Wednesday | May 23, 2012
Success Is Not Easy! But It’s Worth the Effort
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By
Michael Chatman
11 March 2004
I remember the day my friend in California asked me to go surfing with him. "I don’t know how," I responded.
"Oh, it’s easy!" he laughed. "Just tie this board to your foot, paddle out, wait for the Big One, and ride it in!"
Who was I to argue? So I attached a bungee cord to my ankle. This is something you do so that when you plummet into the pounding surf, you don’t have to swim to shore to get your surfboard. Instead, the surfboard stays right there and beats your body to a bleeding pulp.
My next instruction was to paddle out and wait for the "Big One." Of course, I had no idea of what the Big One was. The only big thing that came to mind as I stood gazing at the crashing surf was that thumping musical theme from the movie Jaws. If the Big One was some great fishy predator with razor blades for teeth, then he could ride himself in. I started to untie the bungee cord.
My tanned, muscular friend, smiling with his own impressive teeth, convinced me there were no sharks. He and I paddled out into the deep and waited for a big wave. A few nice swells actually slipped beneath our boards, lifting us towards the sky. "Not bad," I thought. "I can handle this."
Suddenly, a strong undertow began to suck us out toward the open sea. I turned just in time to see a great, watery skyscraper bearing down on us. It was just like one of those waves you would see on an ESPN surfing competition, foam whipping from the top, the curl poising to crash down. So this was the Big One!
I did not ride the Big One. The Big One rode me. I found myself churning head over heels, 30 feet underwater, praying for little things like… air. Somehow, I made it to the surface, only to be pummeled by the thundering surf. I spent the next 10 minutes dodging a 20 pound board attached to my body with a big rubber band.
I remembered that lesson later on when I decided to visit Colorado. Within three days, someone said, "Let’s go skiing." "I don’t know how," I protested.
He said, "It’s easy!"
I replied, "Bite me."
I’d heard enough about "easy." Nothing worth having is easy. I have been an entrepreneur for 10 years – and every minute has been worth it. But it hasn’t been easy. I built a lucrative speaking and consulting business. It is very rewarding! But it wasn’t easy getting the business to this point.
If finding the right job doesn’t come easy, you may feel unqualified and give up. If starting and running your own business doesn’t come easy, you may feel like you’re failing. You may even feel justified in throwing in the towel.
Well, don’t give up! Every worthy venture in life is filled with obstacles. Many business, financial or career successes cross dark valleys of doubt sometime. The freedoms we enjoy in this country were purchased with the blood and sweat of millions of men and women. The word easy didn’t apply.
Does your life include struggles and difficulty? Take heart. You’re in good company. Difficulty is not a sign you’re doing something wrong; it’s a sign you’re alive. If someone stands before you with an easy promise of wealth, health or achievement – RUN. Not ever taking chances, now, that’s what I call easy.
Copyright © 2004. YOUNG MONEY®
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I can empathize with your new client. As a child, as for many years as an adult, I had no real confidence in myself, regardless of accomplishments. When I was a child, my parents tried to teach me the lesson of the ‘Little Engine That Could.’ As you recall, it could because it though it could. Whenever they told me that, I say: “but I don’t think I can”, as that was a far as it ever went.
When I was in college I read a science fiction novel in which the main character (if I recall, I don’t really remember the details) was consumed by fear. So he learned this small poem, which I memorized and said it over and over to myself:
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
Recently I looked it up. It is from a book by Frank Herbert in the Dune series. Regardless of its origins, it really helped me; it helped that I memorized it and repeated it to myself a million times a day.
Well, there are other things that helped my in conquering fear and in ability to be confident, but that was one of the first steps.