“Right time, right place”

We have grown to love having everything easy .

We get our food from the supermarket shelves. If we choose to, we can just zap it in the microwave, or even have it cooked and delivered to us.

Our clothes are washed for us at the press of a button. We also have the information and recreation we need with a few keystrokes.

It is no wonder that we expect the same in every area of our lives, relationships and business.

But that’s one of the reasons why so many of us are not as successful as we could be. We are prone to give up at the first hurdles or shy away from pushing ourselves, thinking that if it is not easy then  “it is not meant to be”.

This is misguided.

The reality is that overnight success is rare. Rags to riches stories always involve consistent action (often with no or little results at first) over a period of time. It is generally not easy.

It may start with a brilliant idea whose time has come (Bill Gates’ “a computer in every home” idea, for example) but it does not necessarily take the world by storm overnight.  It normally attracts skepticism at the very least. It took  Gates’ coming up with the MS-DOS operating system in 1985, then releasing Microsoft Office in 1989 to establish Microsoft’s success. Not an overnight process. There were failures along the way too.

Being successful requires strategy, focus and consistency. There was a time when I had to up the ante to keep a job I had. The morale at the office was at an epic low so I had to dig deep, take care of my mindset strategically.

I looked for online “pep talks” and listened to one each morning. I started each day on a mission. I took everything thrown at me as a challenge. The consistency in this new approach helped me keep my job then.

Entrepreneurship  too involves consistency. It’s a life of trial and error, pits and troughs. It’s only after persistent action that momentum is gathered and results appear.

This side of the story perhaps doesn’t feature much in the mass media. It is still very real.

The formula is simple, whether you are  young, old, from the US, The UK…or Sierra Leone, as this young innovator proves,

“You can’t have success like you have your coffee (instant)”

You have to expect hurdles. You have to be prepared to figure out ways to clear them or circumnavigate them.

If you fail, you are actually closer to success than you were before. Learn from your failures and protect your morale by feeding your brain positive information.

To read about the silver bullet myth, take the quiz and I’ll send you the link.

Reflect,  Redefine, Rise

R.