Thursday, August 17, 2017
Something for Nothing? Not Likely.
By Donovan Baldwin
Sometimes, people complain that they don't get nothing.
Double negative. I know. Writer's privilege.
Anyway, many people expect stuff to just happen...fall in their laps. They don't understand how "getting stuff" works.
To GET something, you usually have to DO something.
Even winning the lottery usually requires getting up out of the chair, going to the store, and buying a ticket...or talking someone else into doing it for you.
Step one: DO something.
Step two: do something that CAN GET you something.
I admit that includes robbing banks, or, selling drugs, but, even there, there's effort involved.
Step three; if you don't know how to do something that will get you something, learn how to do something that will.
Go to college?
Maybe.
Ever wonder how much a plumber or a good diesel mechanic gets paid? Better than some "college" jobs, that's for sure, and, there's nothing wrong with working with your hands, and taking money for it from people who can't or won't.
You can put a kid through college on a plumber's pay or drive a fine car or own a fine house.
Any idea how many fast food franchise owners started out flipping burgers?
Me neither, but, I've met a few, and, almost every fast food manager did...and, yes, I was a Taco Bell, and a Dairy Queen manager for a while.
Once you've completed step three, you're ready for step two.
That's how many millionaires became millionaires. Next one could be you.
Double negative. I know. Writer's privilege.
Anyway, many people expect stuff to just happen...fall in their laps. They don't understand how "getting stuff" works.
To GET something, you usually have to DO something.
Even winning the lottery usually requires getting up out of the chair, going to the store, and buying a ticket...or talking someone else into doing it for you.
Step one: DO something.
Step two: do something that CAN GET you something.
I admit that includes robbing banks, or, selling drugs, but, even there, there's effort involved.
Step three; if you don't know how to do something that will get you something, learn how to do something that will.
Go to college?
Maybe.
Ever wonder how much a plumber or a good diesel mechanic gets paid? Better than some "college" jobs, that's for sure, and, there's nothing wrong with working with your hands, and taking money for it from people who can't or won't.
You can put a kid through college on a plumber's pay or drive a fine car or own a fine house.
Any idea how many fast food franchise owners started out flipping burgers?
Me neither, but, I've met a few, and, almost every fast food manager did...and, yes, I was a Taco Bell, and a Dairy Queen manager for a while.
Once you've completed step three, you're ready for step two.
That's how many millionaires became millionaires. Next one could be you.
Labels: article by Donovan Baldwin, become a millionaire, donovan baldwin, get rich, getting rich, income, money, success
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Passion and Poetry, and Life
By Laurent Grenier
Ironically, the passion that can neutralize the repulsion for difficulties depends on the effort to overcome these difficulties. The irony resides in the circularity of this principle - which applies to all areas of activity, including poetry: One must make the effort to overcome difficulties to achieve success and feel capable, and one needs this achievement and feeling to have a passion for making this effort.
How can one enter this circle without this passion? In other words, how does one resolve the quasi-contradiction according to which one cannot passionately start the effort to overcome difficulties before it has ended successfully?
If difficulties are deemed insurmountable, mistakenly or not, the repulsion for them is absolute. In that case, nothing will motivate the effort to succeed, except an outside authority that can dictate this effort, or an outside influence that can generate faith and stimulate courage. In every other case where the seriousness of the difficulties is open to doubt, one may try one's luck with mixed feelings.
Assuming one tries, the result of this effort will constitute additional self-knowledge that will inform one's future choices. A positive outcome will act as a positive reinforcement that emboldens one to try again, with increased confidence and reduced hesitation; a negative outcome will do the opposite.
Should one refuse to try one's luck, this would slow one's progress, but not necessarily stop it. Confidence can be increased and hesitation reduced by degrees, through a series of baby steps that can eventually lead to triumph. All in all, people have more than one trick up their sleeve to succeed in life, though they cannot escape the necessity of achieving success to develop a passion for the difficult task of living.
As regards poetry, success may be achieved in a roundabout and gradual way. Take a young educated man who has a sense of imagery and a desire to express himself. While his education has prepared him for the written expression of his feelings and thoughts, this sense and this desire together drive him to write poetically, though he has no pretensions to composing a poem.
This first step is a manner of kickoff that gets the ball rolling. He becomes aware of his poetic ability within the limits of his poetic writing. What is more, he catches a glimpse of the poetry that is a blur in this writing and could emerge from the prose like a landscape from the fog. His potential as a future poet is thus faintly discernible. It assumes the form of an inkling whose haziness will progressively dissipate as further poetic efforts are made successfully. In the end the young man sees himself as a young poet. He is eager to grapple with the difficulties of writing poetry because he is confident that he will overcome them and delight in this achievement.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laurent Grenier's writing career spans over twenty years. During this time he has broadened and deepened his worldview, by dint of much reflection and study, and in the end has crafted "A Reason for Living", his best work to date.
Official web site: http://laurentgrenier.com/ARFL.html
Article Source: Passion and Poetry, and Life
================
ORIGINAL POETRY BY DONOVAN BALDWIN
Ironically, the passion that can neutralize the repulsion for difficulties depends on the effort to overcome these difficulties. The irony resides in the circularity of this principle - which applies to all areas of activity, including poetry: One must make the effort to overcome difficulties to achieve success and feel capable, and one needs this achievement and feeling to have a passion for making this effort.
How can one enter this circle without this passion? In other words, how does one resolve the quasi-contradiction according to which one cannot passionately start the effort to overcome difficulties before it has ended successfully?
If difficulties are deemed insurmountable, mistakenly or not, the repulsion for them is absolute. In that case, nothing will motivate the effort to succeed, except an outside authority that can dictate this effort, or an outside influence that can generate faith and stimulate courage. In every other case where the seriousness of the difficulties is open to doubt, one may try one's luck with mixed feelings.
Assuming one tries, the result of this effort will constitute additional self-knowledge that will inform one's future choices. A positive outcome will act as a positive reinforcement that emboldens one to try again, with increased confidence and reduced hesitation; a negative outcome will do the opposite.
Should one refuse to try one's luck, this would slow one's progress, but not necessarily stop it. Confidence can be increased and hesitation reduced by degrees, through a series of baby steps that can eventually lead to triumph. All in all, people have more than one trick up their sleeve to succeed in life, though they cannot escape the necessity of achieving success to develop a passion for the difficult task of living.
As regards poetry, success may be achieved in a roundabout and gradual way. Take a young educated man who has a sense of imagery and a desire to express himself. While his education has prepared him for the written expression of his feelings and thoughts, this sense and this desire together drive him to write poetically, though he has no pretensions to composing a poem.
This first step is a manner of kickoff that gets the ball rolling. He becomes aware of his poetic ability within the limits of his poetic writing. What is more, he catches a glimpse of the poetry that is a blur in this writing and could emerge from the prose like a landscape from the fog. His potential as a future poet is thus faintly discernible. It assumes the form of an inkling whose haziness will progressively dissipate as further poetic efforts are made successfully. In the end the young man sees himself as a young poet. He is eager to grapple with the difficulties of writing poetry because he is confident that he will overcome them and delight in this achievement.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laurent Grenier's writing career spans over twenty years. During this time he has broadened and deepened his worldview, by dint of much reflection and study, and in the end has crafted "A Reason for Living", his best work to date.
Official web site: http://laurentgrenier.com/ARFL.html
Article Source: Passion and Poetry, and Life
================
ORIGINAL POETRY BY DONOVAN BALDWIN
Labels: achievement, confidence, courage, difficulties, passion, poetry, self-knowledge, success
Monday, March 19, 2007
Consistency - Parent of Progress, Cornerstone of Success
Copyright 2007 by Donovan Baldwin
In his book, "Awaken the Giant Within", Anthony Robbins has the following to say about achieving success:
"In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently."
Remember back down the line where someone told you that if you put a little bit of money in the bank every week or out of every paycheck, after a while you would have a large chunk of money? Made sense, right?
Or how about if you take a walk every day, or at least several times a week, you will lose weight, get fitter, go down a dress size...whatever! Do you remember that?
Okay, how about brush every day? I know you've heard that one!
So, what the heck do all these things have in common?
No peeking! You actually have to read the article.
Oh, okay. We all know and understand that simply taking the occasional swing at changing our lives or improving them or losing weight or making more money isn't going to work. It's the exercise done regularly and often over time that improves our bodies. It's the money put into the bank out of every paycheck that mounts up to enough to actually invest in something expensive. It is brushing our teeth every day that helps keep tooth decay in check and keeps the dentist off our backs.
That little Austrian kid, what's his name, probably did have some good genes going for him. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger never would have made "Pumping Iron", got discovered, made a lot more movies, married Maria Shriver, and become the governor of the state of California if he had only visited the gym once or twice and then quit...or only showed up every other Wednesday.
Like so many successful people, Ahnald (sorry, couldn't resist) visualized a goal for himself, figured out what steps were needed to get him there, and then was willing to spend the time and effort necessary to perform those steps regularly and religiously.
Raining and cold today? Got to get to the gym. Don't feel like working out? Got to get to the gym. Not only that, if something he tried wasn't working, he tried to figure out what would work and started over.
Was every step along the way perfect? Of course not. Just look at some of Arnold's movies, and you will see that some would definitely NOT remind you of the future governor of California...or of Gregory Peck, Charleton Heston, or Gabby Hayes, for that matter. What did matter was that he kept swinging...er, lifting, and did not give up.
Same with Ronald Regan, by the way.
Or how about that young black woman born in the segregated city of Birmingham, Alabama in the mid 50's? Who would have thought that she ever would have a chance to become anything. I grew up in the South of the 50's. I remember what she faced. It wasn't just two water fountains (white and colored) and three bathrooms (men, women, and colored). That's almost just an inconvenience compared to being considered by a large part of the population to be less than human and not being allowed to even dream of following the paths to achievement open to those who did not have skin the same color as hers. However, she too had a goal and never quit working at it despite the obstacles, and the almost certain times that she must have felt that her goal must be impossible to obtain.
Today, Condoleezza Rice is one of the most famous, most respected women in the world. Her name will go down in history because she had something to work towards and realized that just taking a casual swing at it once in a while would not get her where she wanted to go.
By the way, it was another person with skin the color of hers who would not give up and quit either. Partly because of the sacrifices of people like Martin Luther King, not only did the extra water fountain and bathroom go away, but so did a lot of the obstacles that little girl faced. He didn't quit trying either, until he could try no more...and that decision was not his.
Pick somebody successful. It doesn't matter if it is Tiger Woods, Thomas Edison, Donald Trump, or Tony Robbins. Heck, Edison even said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." How many of us would have quit after two or three tries?
How about that unemployed ex-secretary in Britain. Thought up some silly characters and wrote a book about them. Twelve publishing houses rejected her story before one decided to take a chance on it. Even her good friends were telling her to give it up and get a real job when the first Harry Potter book by J. K. Rowling hit the stands.
An old story I remember from a bazillion (my spell checker says "kazillion" doesn't exist) years ago was about a sports writer watching a famous golfer sink a difficult putt. A man beside him snorted and said something like, "I wish I had been lucky enough to be born with his talent." The sports writer didn't say anything at that time, but he thought to himself of all the times he had seen that same golfer practicing putting over and over between rounds when he could have been resting.
Yeah, we all have different levels of skills and talents. Our parents may or may not have been able to help us out. Our genes, or the circumstances of our birth and heritage, may or may not have made it easier for us to accomplish this or that. However, again and again we can see that the winners...those who succeed, are not always the most talented, those born rich, or those whose genes made it easy for them.
So many times in life's race, the winner is the one who simply did not quit running.
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer and a University of West Florida alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. In his career, he has held many managerial and supervisory positions. However, his main pleasures have long been writing, nature, health and fitness. In the last few years, he has been able to combine these pleasures by writing poetry and articles on subjects such as health, fitness, yoga, writing, the environment, happiness, self improvement, and weight loss.
Learn how you can save hundreds of dollars with do-it-yourself legal forms and software at http://www.legal-forms-supermarket.com/ .
In his book, "Awaken the Giant Within", Anthony Robbins has the following to say about achieving success:
"In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently."
Remember back down the line where someone told you that if you put a little bit of money in the bank every week or out of every paycheck, after a while you would have a large chunk of money? Made sense, right?
Or how about if you take a walk every day, or at least several times a week, you will lose weight, get fitter, go down a dress size...whatever! Do you remember that?
Okay, how about brush every day? I know you've heard that one!
So, what the heck do all these things have in common?
No peeking! You actually have to read the article.
Oh, okay. We all know and understand that simply taking the occasional swing at changing our lives or improving them or losing weight or making more money isn't going to work. It's the exercise done regularly and often over time that improves our bodies. It's the money put into the bank out of every paycheck that mounts up to enough to actually invest in something expensive. It is brushing our teeth every day that helps keep tooth decay in check and keeps the dentist off our backs.
That little Austrian kid, what's his name, probably did have some good genes going for him. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger never would have made "Pumping Iron", got discovered, made a lot more movies, married Maria Shriver, and become the governor of the state of California if he had only visited the gym once or twice and then quit...or only showed up every other Wednesday.
Like so many successful people, Ahnald (sorry, couldn't resist) visualized a goal for himself, figured out what steps were needed to get him there, and then was willing to spend the time and effort necessary to perform those steps regularly and religiously.
Raining and cold today? Got to get to the gym. Don't feel like working out? Got to get to the gym. Not only that, if something he tried wasn't working, he tried to figure out what would work and started over.
Was every step along the way perfect? Of course not. Just look at some of Arnold's movies, and you will see that some would definitely NOT remind you of the future governor of California...or of Gregory Peck, Charleton Heston, or Gabby Hayes, for that matter. What did matter was that he kept swinging...er, lifting, and did not give up.
Same with Ronald Regan, by the way.
Or how about that young black woman born in the segregated city of Birmingham, Alabama in the mid 50's? Who would have thought that she ever would have a chance to become anything. I grew up in the South of the 50's. I remember what she faced. It wasn't just two water fountains (white and colored) and three bathrooms (men, women, and colored). That's almost just an inconvenience compared to being considered by a large part of the population to be less than human and not being allowed to even dream of following the paths to achievement open to those who did not have skin the same color as hers. However, she too had a goal and never quit working at it despite the obstacles, and the almost certain times that she must have felt that her goal must be impossible to obtain.
Today, Condoleezza Rice is one of the most famous, most respected women in the world. Her name will go down in history because she had something to work towards and realized that just taking a casual swing at it once in a while would not get her where she wanted to go.
By the way, it was another person with skin the color of hers who would not give up and quit either. Partly because of the sacrifices of people like Martin Luther King, not only did the extra water fountain and bathroom go away, but so did a lot of the obstacles that little girl faced. He didn't quit trying either, until he could try no more...and that decision was not his.
Pick somebody successful. It doesn't matter if it is Tiger Woods, Thomas Edison, Donald Trump, or Tony Robbins. Heck, Edison even said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." How many of us would have quit after two or three tries?
How about that unemployed ex-secretary in Britain. Thought up some silly characters and wrote a book about them. Twelve publishing houses rejected her story before one decided to take a chance on it. Even her good friends were telling her to give it up and get a real job when the first Harry Potter book by J. K. Rowling hit the stands.
An old story I remember from a bazillion (my spell checker says "kazillion" doesn't exist) years ago was about a sports writer watching a famous golfer sink a difficult putt. A man beside him snorted and said something like, "I wish I had been lucky enough to be born with his talent." The sports writer didn't say anything at that time, but he thought to himself of all the times he had seen that same golfer practicing putting over and over between rounds when he could have been resting.
Yeah, we all have different levels of skills and talents. Our parents may or may not have been able to help us out. Our genes, or the circumstances of our birth and heritage, may or may not have made it easier for us to accomplish this or that. However, again and again we can see that the winners...those who succeed, are not always the most talented, those born rich, or those whose genes made it easy for them.
So many times in life's race, the winner is the one who simply did not quit running.
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer and a University of West Florida alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. In his career, he has held many managerial and supervisory positions. However, his main pleasures have long been writing, nature, health and fitness. In the last few years, he has been able to combine these pleasures by writing poetry and articles on subjects such as health, fitness, yoga, writing, the environment, happiness, self improvement, and weight loss.
Learn how you can save hundreds of dollars with do-it-yourself legal forms and software at http://www.legal-forms-supermarket.com/ .
Labels: achieving goals, goal setting, goals, motivation, self improvement, success
Saturday, December 23, 2006
How To Become An Overnight Success
By Donovan Baldwin
Taylor Hicks, Evelyn Adams, William "Bud" Post, Eldrick Woods, Suzanne Mullins, and Joanne “Jo” Rowling all have something in common. For at least one time in each of their lives, they were an overnight success.
Many Americans, at least, will recognize Taylor Hicks as a 2006 winner of the popular TV show, "American Idol". British subjects have cause to be proud of Joanne "Jo" Rowling who is more easily recognized by her pen name, J. K. Rowling. Those who still don't recognize her have almost certainly heard of the boy wizard she created who goes by the simple name of Harry Potter. Harry's a bit of an overnight success himself, and he has taken J. K. Rowling along on a magical ride. Who's Eldrick Woods? Oh, if I had just said Tiger Woods, you would have picked up on it right away, and where's the fun in that?
Who are Evelyn Adams, William Post, and Suzanne Mullins? We'll get to that in a moment.
There are essentially two ways to become an overnight success. Taylor Hicks, J. K. Rowling, and Tiger Woods exemplify the first way.
Taylor Hicks became an overnight success in the middle of 2006 when he won top spot on the "American Idol" TV show. That much many "American Idol" fans and music buffs around the world now know. What many don't know, or even think about, is that Taylor Hicks spent a decade as an independent artist before his overnight success. Had you been at the Playboy Mansion, the Talledega Motor Speedway, or in Auburn, Alabama on the right night, you might have gotten to hear him perform. Over the years, he did get to perform with such legendary names as James Brown, Tom Petty, and Jackson Browne. However, up until the night he won the "American Idol" competition, HIS name was not exactly a household item.
Joanne Rowling was turned down by Oxford College in her younger days and worked variously as a researcher and secretary and also in Portugal as a teacher of English. In the early 90's, she got the initial idea for the young wizard who eventually became Harry Potter, and began writing. She completed her first novel while she was unemployed. She was living at the time on what we in America would call "welfare". When she first tried to market "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", a close friend, who was on her side, advised her to "get a day job" because he didn't feel she had a chance to make much money in children's books. The first printing run was one-thousand books and half of those were sent to libraries. Today, those first one-thousand books are each one a collector's item in itself. While this ex-secretary and English teacher must surely be pleased by the fantastic income she has made from the Harry Potter books and movies, she is possibly even more pleased by the fact that in 2006, in a poll by "The Book Magazine", J. K. Rowling was selected as "the greatest living British writer."
Okay, so how did Tiger Woods get in a list of overnight successes?
Well, you may have seen a small trend in the mini-biographies of Taylor Hicks and J. K. Rowling. Although they fit into the category, even a cursory scanning of their lives shows they paid their dues for some time before success found them. In fact, the overnight success they experienced came about after years of disappointment, standing on the bottom rung of the ladder, and in some cases, not even being near the ladder.
Tiger Woods has been called by some a "golfing prodigy", and that is not an unrealistic assessment. However, even a Tiger Woods does not get to where he is today by strapping on a set of cleats and wandering out onto a golf course with a nine iron and a dream. He learns, practices, fails, assesses, moves forward, falls down, gets up, and starts all over again.
In other words, an overnight success very seldom happens overnight. The success comes after a lot of effort on the part of the successful person.
After a memorable performance, a great pianist was approached by one of the audience. The fan spoke glowingly about the performance and finished with the remark that she wished that she could play as well. Perhaps with more truth than tact, the pianist replied to the effect that she was wrong. She could NOT genuinely wish to play as well as he. Otherwise, she would practice for hours a day year after year as he did, rather than simply "wishing" she could play as well.
Overnight success is so named from its apparently sudden appearance on one's doorstep. However, success is not too good at finding people unless they have built a pathway for it to follow, and perhaps lit a beacon as well.
I mentioned that there are essentially two ways to become an overnight success, and I have concentrated on the first group for a reason. If you wish to join that group, YOU are the one in control of the situation. If you seriously want to be in the first group, you now have an idea of what you might need to do.
So, who are Evelyn Adams, William "Bud" Post, and Suzanne Mullins? They too were overnight successes. They each won a lottery.
Evelyn Adams actually was an overnight success twice. She won the New Jersey lottery in 1985 and 1986. She won a total of 5.4 million dollars. She lost it all, donating part of it to some needy Atlantic City slot machines. "Bud" Post won 16.2 million dollars in Pennsylvania but eventually wound up living on his social security. Suzanne Mullins won 4.2 million dollars in 1993. She lost all of it and went even deeper in debt through poor decisions on its use.
There's another term sometimes used for an overnight success. That term is "flash in the pan". Many people who are seeking what they see as success will often wind up as just a flash in the pan at best unless they are willing to get out the necessary tools and prepare the pathway so that success can find them.
Tiger Woods, J. K. Rowling, and Taylor Hicks were willing to build the pathway and keep it cleared. Their names will be familiar for years to come, and they can always claim the victor's laurel wreath for becoming an overnight success.
Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer and a University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a BA in accounting and a keen interest in health, self improvement, happiness, and success. He is also a member of Mensa and has held several managerial positions over the years. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, he became interested in internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has a website on health, fitness, diet, and weight loss at nodiet4me.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donovan_Baldwin
KEYWORDS: success, overnight success, success story, success strategy, definition of success, success factor
Taylor Hicks, Evelyn Adams, William "Bud" Post, Eldrick Woods, Suzanne Mullins, and Joanne “Jo” Rowling all have something in common. For at least one time in each of their lives, they were an overnight success.
Many Americans, at least, will recognize Taylor Hicks as a 2006 winner of the popular TV show, "American Idol". British subjects have cause to be proud of Joanne "Jo" Rowling who is more easily recognized by her pen name, J. K. Rowling. Those who still don't recognize her have almost certainly heard of the boy wizard she created who goes by the simple name of Harry Potter. Harry's a bit of an overnight success himself, and he has taken J. K. Rowling along on a magical ride. Who's Eldrick Woods? Oh, if I had just said Tiger Woods, you would have picked up on it right away, and where's the fun in that?
Who are Evelyn Adams, William Post, and Suzanne Mullins? We'll get to that in a moment.
There are essentially two ways to become an overnight success. Taylor Hicks, J. K. Rowling, and Tiger Woods exemplify the first way.
Taylor Hicks became an overnight success in the middle of 2006 when he won top spot on the "American Idol" TV show. That much many "American Idol" fans and music buffs around the world now know. What many don't know, or even think about, is that Taylor Hicks spent a decade as an independent artist before his overnight success. Had you been at the Playboy Mansion, the Talledega Motor Speedway, or in Auburn, Alabama on the right night, you might have gotten to hear him perform. Over the years, he did get to perform with such legendary names as James Brown, Tom Petty, and Jackson Browne. However, up until the night he won the "American Idol" competition, HIS name was not exactly a household item.
Joanne Rowling was turned down by Oxford College in her younger days and worked variously as a researcher and secretary and also in Portugal as a teacher of English. In the early 90's, she got the initial idea for the young wizard who eventually became Harry Potter, and began writing. She completed her first novel while she was unemployed. She was living at the time on what we in America would call "welfare". When she first tried to market "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", a close friend, who was on her side, advised her to "get a day job" because he didn't feel she had a chance to make much money in children's books. The first printing run was one-thousand books and half of those were sent to libraries. Today, those first one-thousand books are each one a collector's item in itself. While this ex-secretary and English teacher must surely be pleased by the fantastic income she has made from the Harry Potter books and movies, she is possibly even more pleased by the fact that in 2006, in a poll by "The Book Magazine", J. K. Rowling was selected as "the greatest living British writer."
Okay, so how did Tiger Woods get in a list of overnight successes?
Well, you may have seen a small trend in the mini-biographies of Taylor Hicks and J. K. Rowling. Although they fit into the category, even a cursory scanning of their lives shows they paid their dues for some time before success found them. In fact, the overnight success they experienced came about after years of disappointment, standing on the bottom rung of the ladder, and in some cases, not even being near the ladder.
Tiger Woods has been called by some a "golfing prodigy", and that is not an unrealistic assessment. However, even a Tiger Woods does not get to where he is today by strapping on a set of cleats and wandering out onto a golf course with a nine iron and a dream. He learns, practices, fails, assesses, moves forward, falls down, gets up, and starts all over again.
In other words, an overnight success very seldom happens overnight. The success comes after a lot of effort on the part of the successful person.
After a memorable performance, a great pianist was approached by one of the audience. The fan spoke glowingly about the performance and finished with the remark that she wished that she could play as well. Perhaps with more truth than tact, the pianist replied to the effect that she was wrong. She could NOT genuinely wish to play as well as he. Otherwise, she would practice for hours a day year after year as he did, rather than simply "wishing" she could play as well.
Overnight success is so named from its apparently sudden appearance on one's doorstep. However, success is not too good at finding people unless they have built a pathway for it to follow, and perhaps lit a beacon as well.
I mentioned that there are essentially two ways to become an overnight success, and I have concentrated on the first group for a reason. If you wish to join that group, YOU are the one in control of the situation. If you seriously want to be in the first group, you now have an idea of what you might need to do.
So, who are Evelyn Adams, William "Bud" Post, and Suzanne Mullins? They too were overnight successes. They each won a lottery.
Evelyn Adams actually was an overnight success twice. She won the New Jersey lottery in 1985 and 1986. She won a total of 5.4 million dollars. She lost it all, donating part of it to some needy Atlantic City slot machines. "Bud" Post won 16.2 million dollars in Pennsylvania but eventually wound up living on his social security. Suzanne Mullins won 4.2 million dollars in 1993. She lost all of it and went even deeper in debt through poor decisions on its use.
There's another term sometimes used for an overnight success. That term is "flash in the pan". Many people who are seeking what they see as success will often wind up as just a flash in the pan at best unless they are willing to get out the necessary tools and prepare the pathway so that success can find them.
Tiger Woods, J. K. Rowling, and Taylor Hicks were willing to build the pathway and keep it cleared. Their names will be familiar for years to come, and they can always claim the victor's laurel wreath for becoming an overnight success.
Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer and a University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a BA in accounting and a keen interest in health, self improvement, happiness, and success. He is also a member of Mensa and has held several managerial positions over the years. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, he became interested in internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has a website on health, fitness, diet, and weight loss at nodiet4me.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donovan_Baldwin
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