Finding one’s passion is the easy part of hearing your calling on Earth. The decision to pursue a particular avenue is a privilege reserved for all humans. When reading Think and Grow Rich, the theme revolves around that. Even though that might or might not be the secret that Napoleon is sharing in his principles of success, the power to decide one’s fate occurs in every chapter of the book. To decide who you want to be is easy; being that person you decide to be is the tricky part.
One can decide to be the best fighter in the world. They can find inspiration in the greats such as Iron Mike, Ali, Jon Jones and the likes. They can watch all the fights of their role models. Unless that person goes to the gym, that decision will remain but an elusive reality that exists only in their mind.
Others actually begin to work towards being the person they decide to be. An artist, who decided to be one of the greatest painters of the modern era, begins to paint. The artist begins to understand how paint works and begins to learn how to blend and how to mix colours. The artist takes the time to learn the techniques to provide the strokes, textures and shapes that they want to paint. The great thing about this person is that they have begun their journey to greatness.
However, they are still far. The artist needs to paint more artworks in order to be recognised as one of the greatest. Usually, like most people, they hit a plateau. The reach the end of the horizon. The land is vast and un-ending as they continue towards their greatness. It is in this area that many fall of the wagon. The minute success that they achieve banishes them to a world of comfort. Others begin to gain a bit of wealth that blinds them from their true treasures. At this point, in this vastness of comfort, the desire to be the greatest of all time slows dies out.
It is said that anyone can be great. The difference is in the willingness to go the extra mile. All the greats emphasise the importance of hard work. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in one of his famous speeches, said that while you are busy horsing around, someone out there is getting better. When you think of how his greatness was defined, one understands his words clearly. Arnold is regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. At the level of his competition, even the slightest ill-discipline in diet or training could have easily dethroned him off his seat.
The UFC has a promotional show they broadcast before major fights. In the build-up towards Nunes and Spencer, they broadcasted each fighter’s preparations to the fight. Nunes is regarded as the best female MMA fighter of all time. Spencer was regarded as the fighter who could perhaps dethrone the Lioness. What’s interesting is that during the show, when they interviewed Spencer, she was out with her team. They were enjoying quality time in a local attraction. At the same time, when Nunes was interviewed, she was putting the work in. She was in the gym, working on drills and fixing her techniques. When fight night came, Nunes totally dominated Spencer.
The bit of time that Spencer used to go out with her team, Nunes used to work on her fighting. Thus, that slight difference in time management gave Nunes the edge. At that level of competition, such factors play a great role in one’s success. The key thing that one learnt from that fight is that greatness is something that is worked for. Conner McGregor credits his success to an “insane work ethic”. Jon Jones keeps posting working out videos and writes the caption “the 1%”. Luck, as it is said, is charmed by hard work.
It is easy to see this principle of hard work when it comes to sports. Usain Bolt once said that for him to break records in seconds is the accumulation of hours in training. “Champions are made in the gym” most boxers say. And, this discipline is seen when it is on display. The discipline of a consistent diet plan, workout routine yields the results that are desired. However, at some point, it is easy to reach a plateau. A stage where the body no longer responds to the dieting and working out. And so, at this stage, to escape the plateau, one has to challenge themselves with even harder tasks.
These challenges lead to an improvement that leads to your success. The 1% that seeks to better themselves are the ones that reach their promise land. These are the ones that make the time to learn new techniques for their craft. They are the ones that go the extra mile. They understand that the extra mile is the point where many do not reach and so, there are more rewards at the end of that mile. Success births greatness but greatness is only a by-product of hard work.
The key thing to understand is that hard work is the continual improvement of self. Someone who studies overnight, every night is not necessarily working hard. The reason is that someone else with a more effective study routine can obtain similar results with less the effort. Therefore, this person does not sacrifice their health in pursuit of their wealth. They say that the smart entrepreneur is the one that can create systems that will ensure the business can operate without him. There is a video of a cyclist who finds an effective way to go faster without having to pedal harder. She easily overtakes most of the other cyclists. One cyclist attempts to pedal harder but remains in the dust of her intelligence. Working hard is finding means of improving yourself without burning yourself out.
What good will a billion be if most of it goes to your medical bills? The art of an insane work ethic indeed comes from engaging in that which you love. This enables one to find ways as to how to be better and more effective. A boxer will run an extra mile so that he has the stamina to survive the championship rounds. In the last lap of the race, that’s where the great are separated from the rest. In order to be ready for that last lap, it requires one to be well equipped with the training and skillset to survive it. An artist usually finds it easy to paint his first few paints. However, it is the last pieces of work that he is remembered for. Think of the greats such as Basquiat, Picasso, Reinhardt and them. Before reaching that level of greatness, these artists had a minimum of at least a 1000 paintings to their name. They are remembered for less than 10 of them.
An insane work ethic has nothing to do with the “hours you have put in”. If in those hours, you still on the same level of skill as you were before putting those hours in, then there is no improvement to your being. Thus, greatness will remain a shining star on top of the mountain. An insane work ethic is one that leads to the enhancement of self in one shape or another. If you cross night and yet attain the same marks you were received previous year of your study, you not improving. If you work out for an hour more than usual and yet continue to lift the same amount weights as you did the previous month, you not improving. If you are generating a certain amount of income monthly, the same amount for the past 5 years, you not improving nor becoming someone of value in the marketplace.
An insane work ethic is the ability to more efficient. Being more efficient is the ability to increase your productivity with fewer resources. Bruce Lee’s one-inch produced an insane amount of impact using every little amount of resources. Successful social media influencers have worked hard enough to ensure that they generate enough income with the least amount of effort. This is seen with the influencer who can generate income of R30 000 and more with a single post. Chances are they worked hard to get there. They invested in themselves, and in the equipment to produce quality images. They kept at it until the snowball got so large that it began to roll itself.
At that stage, even the smallest amount of snow can cause an exponential effect. This principle is seen within the world of investing. In the first few years, one’s investments does not grow that much. A wise investor will keep putting money in their investment. This consistency will pay off when the power of compounding takes effect. At that stage, the investor can finally enjoy the benefits of their investments. The consistency in the contribution they gave to their investment will result in the fruits they enjoy. If the investor somewhere in the journey lost discipline and resorted to comfort, their investment will show. If the investor never forsook their hunger for a financially free life and poured in more to their contributions, their investment will show. Investing, like sports, is also something that requires a form of hard work for it to yield the rewards that are desired. The Ray Dalios are to investment what Michael Jordan is to basketball. And each of them, their greatness is defined to the insane work ethic that they dedicated to their craft.
Investing and basketball are two worlds apart but the principle of hard work is the same. The trick is finding what an insane work ethic is for your passion. An insane work ethic for someone who desires to be a philosopher is not the same as for someone who desires to be a runner. The runner will spend more time on the tracks than on books and the philosopher will spend more time with books than on the tracks. Yes, it is wise for the runner to read books inasmuch as it is wise for the philosopher to run on the track on occasion. However, the discipline to understand what makes you great in your line of work is key to finding success in it.
An insane work ethic must lead to an improvement of sorts. For the student, she must find ways to reduce cross-nights of studying and yet produce her distinctions. The entrepreneur must find ways to create systems that will yield more levels of productivity with fewer resources. The 1% have mastered this. This is what enabled someone like 50 cent to make a million dollars from an Instagram hashtag he created. Virtually no money was invested into his hashtag but because he is 50 cent (the brand he has worked very hard to create over the years), he generated a million US dollars from it.
This continual improvement is what leads one out the plateau and into the land of the promised- the land of greatness.
I like the sword of faith very much , great