Those ‘5 Ways…’ tips lists are irresistible, aren’t they? I also enjoy ones with titles like: ‘6 Mistakes Your Least Successful Competitors Aren’t Making Yet’. However, for me, any one of those tips signpost the way to the real work that’s lurking beneath, waiting to be discovered: the ‘iceberg of the tip’,* if you will.
Easy isn’t Always Best
In August, Seth Godin wrote a post called ‘The self-defeating quest for simple and easy‘, in which he said ‘surgeons don’t sign up for medical school because they’re told that there is a simple, easy way to do open heart surgery‘. Which I think is rather brilliant because it points out something so obvious that we miss it in our rapid scanning of the catchy headlines and funny pictures.
Success Works
The world is filled with successful performers, entrepreneurs and sports stars. What strikes me about many of them is that there was no shortcut; they put their achievements down to how much effort they’ve put in. I’d be very surprised indeed if Jay-Z, Richard Branson or David Beckham were to reveal in an interview that their incredible success was, instead of being a result of their phenomenal drive and ridiculous work ethic, actually down to ‘5 top tips to success’ that they read in a magazine as a teenager.
So,there is no shortcut to your big goals; you just have to practise, work hard, practise some more, and then perhaps you’ll crack it. If you do, please let everyone know that it was solely down to the inspiration from this blog post.
*Oh, I’m very pleased with that. Probably slightly more pleased than I should be, actually.