For those who want to be wealthy in life, I will tell you the secret is working hard. A lot of people tighten up when they see those two words side by side. But believe me I promise it will work. If it was not for hard work I would not be where am I today.

My great grandfather was a hard worker. He was called “Boss” as a nick name. He had a landscape company, a farm and a gas station. Throughout all his nephews and grandchildren he decided to train my father with hard work. My father was the only relative working the farm, working the gas station and doing landscape business on a regular basis with his grandfather. The hard work opened many doors for my father.

Years later my father had several Shell gas stations. He was the only one to open and close the first one he had. He would stay up there all day until night time. It took a lot of work. I was only able to see him night time when he came home. He would not even have time to help me with my home work. He started me and one of my brothers working at his first gas station when we were in elementary school.

I was a gas attendant. I also did minor automobile service. When I became an adult I would handle everything by myself at one of his gas stations because no one else was there. Going outside putting gasoline in those cars in cold weather was a real pain for me. It felt like my fingers were just going to fall off. But everything felt natural as I grew into it.

I got my first magic set at the age of 12. When I was at home I would show magic tricks to my friends. When I was in high school I did get in trouble a few times for bringing my tricks to school and showing other schoolmates. I stuck with those magic tricks. Later I began bringing them to work with me. When my mother would have guest come to our house you should have seen the unhappy look on my mother’s face as I would show her guest my tricks.

When I graduated I would bring a bag of tricks with me to shopping malls. I would walk up to someone sitting down and show them a few tricks. Nowadays when I look back, I say to myself, “Why was I always doing a ridiculous thing?” The answer is because I loved magic. One of the malls security guards told me to stop showing magic tricks to the shoppers. He would catch me a different day doing it again. He warned me if I did it again I would not be able to come to the mall again. But no problem because I would just go show my magic at a different mall. I was having nothing but fun. Because of the practice and free training I was also working myself to my future destiny, not even knowing it.

A few years later I had a hard choice to make. Shall I stay working with my father at his business or start my journey to success. I chose to become a hard working magician. And guess what?, it worked. I’m not kidding now. If you put hard work into whatever entertainment business you want to be in your life you will make success.

While I agree hard work is necessary, attached is an interesting article that offers different perspectives to consider:
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/5-scientif......ues.html

Thanks for the link, Charlie. I wish I knew about that when I was young.

Nothing will take the place of hard work. Sure you can find some shortcuts to help with the work,
but the work is the key. Probably the number one failure in reaching a goal is not being able to
cope with the little boring everyday chores needed to reach that goal. People get tired of doing
the same ole thing over and over, and over and over again, so they stop doing the ‘work.’
They begin looking for the easy street and they get completely lost. Work is not always hard but
it is always required.



“The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.” --Author Unknown

Tom

And relatives with seed money.

Early in my athletic career I visited a wrestling room at a highly successful college program. On the door to the room was a sign that read: "When you are not practicing, somewhere someone else is. When you meet, he will win." Inside the wrestling room the walls were lined with photos of NCAA All Americans.

No different in business or in magic.

Hudson

Something I have framed on my office wall...

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not.
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not.
Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not.
The world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

-Calvin Coolidge

Yeah, but I've seen many persistent and determined people get nowhere because they didn't know what they were doing.

As long as the persistence and determination also includes knowledge, education and the proper execution, this is where they truly can pay-off.

Years ago all the soda bottles required a deposit and could be returned to the store for a bottle refund.
I picked up many to earn candy money. On the side of the bottles it read “No Deposit No Return.”

You can’t return the bottles today but the saying is still true in life, “No Deposit No Return.”

Tom

Times have changed. Now, the person beating you in wrestling has a personal trainer, follows a regimented nutrition, exercise and sleep schedule. It is just as likely that they are wisely resting their body right now.
In today's world Calvin Coolidge would have a hard time finding work exposing those views, as employers are placing a premium on talent and education. Tenure, persistence and work ethic are simply not as sought after attributes as they once were. Not to say they are not important, they are - but in viewing today's competitive marketplace, you better be ready to bring more.

True the jobs have changed and we have easier ways to do many things today, but work is still work.
Even those simply tasks done over and over becomes ‘work.’ If anything, for the self employed, those
easy tasks are much easier to put off nowadays than the hard work was a few years back.

I see it as being much easier to fail nowadays. Truth is society has become very lazy.

Tom

It appears as though you might be too young an simply too inexperienced to grasp the importance of this quote... possibly and hopefully one day you will understand.

No question that training/education, intelligence, and other factors are important in achieving success. Some of these are controllable, some are not. But, fully within your control is how hard you work to succeed.

How hard you work is totally within your control. Spend an hour watching TV or practicing your routine (or developing your advertising campaign or studying the business of entertainment)? Who will be more successful, all other things being equal? Control what you can control and don't waste time worrying about things you can't control.

I once went through an entire brick trying to perfect a Mercury move. Didn't work.
I spent a few minutes with my giant B'Wave, and I've been killing with it for 15 years.

Find out what you don't do good and don't do that!!
Work hard on the rest, and get help where you have to.

Ed

Working hard. Yes.

Working smart. Even better.

Working with balance? Family - work - friends - time to recharge - exercise - eating right.

The best.