one who has written one will tell you that diligence is a must.
They don’t just materialize out of nowhere.
Recently, while working on one of my books, I spent some
time thinking about the “entitlement mentality” that seems to have
afflicted this country. I think we can take it back a few decades to
the emergence of what was called “instant gratification” as per-
sonified by the superstars and rock stars who emerged and made
tremendous amounts of money, which very much impressed young
people. Suddenly, everyone thought they should have what those
very few people had or that those people were “overnight” stars
and it should happen that way to them, too. In reality, it happens
to very few people and rarely does it happen “overnight” to any-
body. Those are the exceptions to the rule, not the norm. But they
received so much media attention that people who had to strug-
gle a bit or work for long years at something had the feeling they
were being left out or that they were being treated unequally.
They began to feel that the world owed them something.
Not everything works out as we might hope it will, and cer-
tain fields require a bigger dose of luck to succeed in than others,
but a very good way to pave your own way to success is simply to
work hard, to be diligent, and to look at what you have going for
you versus what you don’thave going for you—the old cup half
full versus half empty test. Here’s where I bring back my tried and
true theory that you have to think big—because if you’re dimin-
ishing your own prospects, then it’s not likely you will run into a
lot of luck. And part of doing your due diligence is to know what
you want for yourself, not what other people want for you—which
in many cases turns out to be not much! Take the time to move
yourself forward. In other words, think, work—and be lucky.
THINK LIKE A CHAMPION