There was a guy on a TV show who became successful after he opened his cleaning business. Start-up cost for his business was only $200. He currently has 8 staff and the monthly net income is about $20,000.
He said at an interview, “it doesn’t cost you money to have success. What you need is only the determination that you would work hard and the attitude that you would never get tired. It seems that anyone can do this so my friends also jumped into this cleaning business to earn a lot of money but they all quit as it was too tiring. Every morning before I start to work, I say to myself that I’m capable of running all the way up to the top floor of New York Empire State building. It’s a promise to me that I would work to my full capacity without rest or exhaustion. After coming back home, I go straight to bed and sleep tightly. You might think a cleaning job is something easy that anyone can do. However he keeps emphasizing throughout the interview that you cannot do it unless you are very diligent.
Everyone dreams for success but has no intention to put forth effort corresponding to that success. Let’s suppose that you have to lose 10 pounds right now. People, in most cases, make up a plan like skipping dinner, walking for 2 hours every day, and so on. However, it’s quite obvious that it isn’t that easy to carry out the plan to actually lose weight. As this cleaning business owner says, it seems everyone can do it and earn a lot of money but you must carry it into action with 5 times or even 10 times the effort others put to earn that outcome.
You cannot have success by trying just as hard as others try. Most of the successful people are many times more diligent and work all the time. Everyone wishes for success. Do you want to become successful? Then, it would be a good idea to record how you live a day with a camcorder. And compare it with daily routines of people who already succeeded. They are unimaginably busy. There is also an old saying that a successful restaurant never rests. Those who work well work 3~4 times more than others; or maybe, even more than that. If you record your day, it becomes so obvious why success isn’t yours. We tend to just give up and fall into despair the moment we feel difficult. That doesn’t mean that we work hard enough up to that moment. We still wish for the good result to come along although we don’t work twice or three times harder than others. The world is not magic.
Let’s look back at ourselves. ‘Am I working really hard? How much effort do I put in to becoming successful? Am I putting 2~3 times more effort than others?’ To find the answer, we should really check our habits.
The world is not a free lunch. Some people are green with envy and jealous of people who have succeeded in their business. They say the world is not fair. However, you really need to change your thought; ‘Oh, they have tried much more than me. They really worked hard for it.’
But don’t stop there even if you feel pathetic. Find a successful person in your area and make them your role model and learn from that person. You need to learn how to be better and also how to accept their advice. There must be a formula for success. You haven’t been able to succeed because you didn’t follow the formula. That’s why you need to try to follow it even if it might be a little difficult.
Also read many books about successful people. You’ll definitely realize that they are extremely diligent. They work just like ants – much harder than others, never give up, and wordlessly work only in their profession. Money naturally comes along and their business flourishes. If you study interviews by successful people, they all say that there is no such thing called luck. Opportunities come to those who make the effort and good opportunities come to you as much as you make the effort. Nothing comes to those who do nothing and make no effort.
From now on, let’s change our mind attitude and try to work like ants. Work brings about results. Just as you do farming, don’t you have to sow seeds first to harvest them in the fall? Likewise, if you work hard at the moment, which is your best moment, you will one day discover yourself to be highly productive even though you cannot see fruits right now.
Let’s become a hard-working ant. Go for it!
