Are You Willing to Do What Success Requires?

Most people don’t do the thing they want to do because they are not capable. It isn’t a matter of “can’t. “ It is a matter of “won’t.” It’s a matter of “willingness.”

• Unwilling to do the work. You cannot have what you want without putting in the work. This means putting in both the time and the effort necessary to achieve whatever it is you want. Everything has a price that is measured in effort and energy, and you can’t have what you want until you pay the price in full.
• Unwilling to persist. Anything worth having is going to require that you persist long enough to obtain it. You can’t have what you want if instead of persisting, you give up, give in, and go home. You have to have the intestinal fortitude and determination to hang in longer than what seems reasonable to others.
• Unwilling to change what you’re doing. If what you are doing isn’t working, you need to try something different. There is always more than one way to achieve something, and that means you can try, and try again. The way you want to achieve something may not be the way you actually succeed. Take a different path and try something new.
• Unwilling to ask for help? You don’t have to do everything yourself. There is no great honor in going it alone, and there is no shame in getting some help. Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile will happily share with you the people who helped them succeed. If you need help, ask for it.
• Unwilling to make mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn how to course correct. In fact, that’s the most interesting part of your journey. All the action is in the struggle. When you tell your story, we’ll be on the edge of our seats when you tell us what went wrong and how you finally figured things out.
• Unwilling to fail. Failure is feedback. The learning outcome you get from failure is indispensable. Maybe you don’t succeed on the first try. Or the second try. Maybe the fourth business you start is the one that scales, or the fifth book the one that hits. You don’t have to hit on the first attempt.
• Unwilling to launch until perfect. Perfect is an excuse. It’s a way to avoid failure and a way to avoid criticism. You have to be willing to launch, even though you could improve on what you are doing. If you have to wait for perfect, you will never produce anything. Launch, learn, adjust, launch again.

You can do what it is you dream of. The only question you have to ask yourself is, “Are you willing?”