I am Responsible for MY Success

February 24th, 2008

My younger brother is not a tall guy. When he was playing high school basketball, he was about 5’6”, but he LOVED the game of basketball. Even though he was talented in other sports, he walked away from them to focus on his love. He practiced, played and trained for basketball. At the end of the season during his senior year, he received a basketball scholarship.

Talent will only take you so far. It has to be followed up with hard work – and usually lots of it. There has to be action behind the talent before anything will come from the talent.

Writing is my passion. For years I wondered why no one was beating down my door offering me multi-million dollar book deals. Wasn’t my work good enough? Didn’t I have talent?

The truth is (and pardon me while I brag on myself for a minute) that I do have some talent. If I were completely honest, I would say that most people have some talent when it comes to story telling. My problem is that I haven’t been putting the action behind the talent. Instead of writing, working on my writing, or looking for opportunities to get my writing read, I have let other distractions take priority.

If I want to be a successful writer (or get a basketball scholarship or start a business) then I have to put it first. Every day there has to be a significant portion of my time devoted to learning, molding, and exposing my craft. Without action, I just have a notebook full of old poems sitting on my bookshelf getting dusty.

Success is my responsibility. Without me, success will find another place to dwell.

Entry Filed under: Attitudes