Are you successful?
I mean it: do you consider yourself a successful person?
The trippy thing here is that only YOU can answer that. Everybody defines success differently. Maybe some people consider success living a huge house and owning a famous company, some might consider it having a decent job and a spouse and two kids, and some might consider it being able to pay your bills.
So what is success to you? Is it being wealthy? Being happy?
You know, there are a bunch of guys on TedTalk that lecture about the “8 Traits of Successful People” or the “11 Steps to a Successful Life.”
Yeah no.
That’s all nonsense.
I’m going to tell you, very bluntly, the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people. One thing.
Determination.
Motivation.
Call it what you like, it’s all the same thing.
No matter how you define success, you can get there. Some people say that there are two differences, motivation and opportunity. I beg to differ.
People who grew up in Guatemala or Ethiopia or something most likely don’t have the resources to become successful, right?
Right.
But yet some still do. People elsewhere walk some twelve miles past lions and whatnot to go to a school with dirt floors. People with disabilities push through their entire education and then move forward through college to make a difference in something. These people don’t have the opportunity, but they’re determined.
That, my friends, is the one and only factor that separates successful people from unsuccessful ones. Guess what? When I started my first company when I was 8 years old, I didn’t have opportunity. It was a lemonade stand and I made like $40 from it. When I started my root beer business, my leather business, my craft marketplace business, my design business, any of those, I didn’t have opportunity. Oh, sure, I live in the States and all, but just as success is subjective, so is “opportunity.” I created my companies, including the ones today, by sneaking on to the Internet when I knew I wasn’t allowed to and making accounts on platforms like Discord and Reddit and Facebook. But I was determined.
Let’s face it: the world ain’t easy. It just isn’t. Every time you turn around, someone’s gonna slap you in the face. Every time you think you find an easy way out, a shortcut, it’s a dead end you get stuck in and the world laughs at you.
Being determined to do something is the key. Perseverance. Motivation. Stubbornness. It’s all the same thing.
When you’re determined to do something, can’t nobody stop you. Laugh at life. Don’t let it laugh at you.
Be the boss. Do what you want, not what’s easy.
Be determined.
