It’s a windy day in Goleta CA beach. It’s a great day for surfers due to the combination of high tide and strong winds. There must have been 20 different surfers riding these waves one after the other. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to sit down uphill and savor the wonderful scenery.
To my right point
of view is a surfer completely isolated from the rest. Perhaps he is
not confident enough to join the other surfers because he lacks the
skills. Try as he might this surfer cannot seem to catch a wave. A
number of gigantic waves only seem to pass him by despite all his
efforts to ride them. Every failed attempts he swims right back to catch
the next one. He is persistent at least. I would say he has never done
this before. He tries again and again with each wave he becomes better
and better. Then finally it happened…he picked up speed, he stood up,
kept his balance and rode that wave. Other surfers cheer him as he rides
the wave. He eventually fell and popped right back out of the water
with an indescribable expression on his face; Indescribable only to
those people who have never felt that way in their life. He had the
expression of a man who had just crossed an important milestone in his
life-the wonderful look of success.
Most people typically view successful people as
someone who just happened to be at the right place at the right time. In
other words successful people are just plain lucky. But that’s because
we only see the moment of the success, the moment when they are riding
that wave. While I don’t deny that luck plays a role in success I feel
that most people give it too much weight in the formula for success.
I would argue that success is more of a combination
of the right motivation, persistence, and attitude, rather than just a
stroke of luck. The right motivation, persistence, and attitude allow
you to develop such a strong quality that it is almost impossible for
you to fail. This quality drives the individual to commit mistakes,
learns from them, try again, and improve. Just as the surfer fails to
ride these big waves, each time he fails he learns what works and what
doesn’t. Eventually, the next big wave comes his way and the surfer has
learned enough to put himself in the right spot, the right speed, and
obtain the right timing to ride that wave. This I believe is what truly
determines success. It is not achieved through luck but rather through
brutal learning experiences that teaches you to be successful.
I view luck as something periodic that regularly
passes us by. We just currently don’t have the right skills necessary to
take advantage of it. I want to build my own business and obtain
financial independence for myself and my future family. I know big
opportunities are regularly passing me by right under my nose right at
this moment and I’m not aware of it. But persistently I try every single
day to think of ideas on how I can achieve my goals. Slowly but surely,
I’m learning bit by bit what I need to do and the sacrifices that I
need to make in order to get there. I have full faith that when I’m
ready and the next big wave arrives I will be able to pick up speed,
stand up, and keep my balance, and that will just be the beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment