Today, a friend of mine on Facebook shared an article entitled, "What it takes to be great". On the article, there was a photo of Tiger Woods, the world's greatest golfer, at 3 years old - holding a golf club. The moment I looked at the photo, one question lingered in my mind - are some people born to succeed? Evidently, Tiger Woods understood early enough that nobody becomes great without hard work. Unfortunately, most people see the fruits of success, but fail to realise how much hardwork and commitment was put in to achieve it.
After I looked at the photo of the Tiger Woods at 3 years old, I went further to read about him and came across the following video of the man - Tiger Woods at 2 years old:
You would agree that since Tiger was introduced to golf by his father at 18 months old, he has never stopped trying to be the best he can be.
He didn't only wish to become the best; he made it happen - by working hard to perfect his swing. Whether you understand golf or not, I'm sure you understand that practice makes perfect. Positive thinking alone could not make Tiger Woods the best. Positive thinking alone can NEVER make you successful.
As Benjamin Franklin rightly pointed out, "vision without implementation is hallucination." Can you cook an amelet without breaking an egg? If the anwer is NO, then it goes without saying that you can't become successful, arguably in anything you do, without long hours or years of pain-inducing hard work.
Not only Tiger Woods' story shows the role of many years of hard work and perseverance in the quest for greatness.
Permit me to mention the greatest entertainer the world has ever known (my opinion) - Michael Jackson. Together with his brothers, Michael consistently worked hard before he could be crowned "King of Pop". He didn't wake up one morning and became successful; he didn't wave the magic wand and became great. He showed up for reheasals every single day - while the other kids went playing around. If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to watch a mini-series entitled, "The Jacksons: An American Dream"
. The series reveals that there's truly a price for success! If success was "free", don't you think everyone would be successful today?You are encouraged to read about successful people. If you do, you'll realise that they didn't become successful by settling in with the common things. They did what others would not do. They even did what they didn't want to do. Successful folks set clear goals and consistently worked hard to achieve their goals. No one is born to succeed; everyone is born with the potential to succeed - but it takes hard work to realise this potential. Success occurs over time and there's no short road to success. True success only comes from years of hard work, dedication and concentrated effort. Simply put - success does not happen overnight!.
Unfortunately, many people set a goal, "give it a try" for a few weeks or months, fail once and QUIT. What if Tiger Woods had quit after hitting a few golf balls off target? What if Michael Jackson had quit because rehearsing everyday was over-demanding? Or, what if Barack Obama - the political phenomenon - had quit because he lost a few primaries, and was told a black man would never be President of the United States?
Make no mistake - you might work hard and still fail. In this case, chances are you're working hard on the wrong thing. Keep in mind that hardwork does not guarantee anything, but without it, you don't stand a chance.
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