So you wanna be great?

Sigh,

What else do you expect for mainstream media. More BS to keep the American public in the rat race.

If it's all about hard work and persistence, why is it that most who work hard and persist don't succeed? And if everyone, or most, work hard and persist, they can all be successful? At the expense of whom? Try that for common sense.

Darwinism says it's genetics. It's partly that.

A lot of successful people say themselves that there was significant luck involved. There is just no denying it. Bill Gates clearly says that luck was involved and he was at the right place at the right time. Of course, it then required brains & work (not always hard).

And then, as the saying goes "it's not what you know, it's who you know". I think this can be observed today to a ridiculous extreme. Ever check out the US president or the candidates? How about most overpaid CEOs?

It's hard to believe, but a very significant percentage of the US population works their ass off. Most of them never make it past the lower middle class. Yet they still persist, probably because they read crap like that article every year.

P.S. If you really want some shocking reality, go research about Russia's oligarchs and how they became great. Oh yeah, TONS of hard work. Figuring out how to spend their billions, that is.
 
well actually I don't think most people work that hard. They are used to doing one thing and don't want to do to the work to change in order to get somewhere better. So they are just stuck with the same attitude and mindset and don't go anywhere.
 
So people who have shitty jobs can just say...well hey I'm unlucky...or I wasn't in the right place at the right time? Sounds like an excuse to be lazy.
 
Concur with hydro.
Mozart wrote his first composition at age 5- can any kid who has 'supportive parents' do that?
Einstein worked out the theory of Relativity while working a full-time job in a patent office. By all accounts he thought about the problem a great deal, but can anyone who thinks about physics match him, most scientists can barely comprehend it, let alone discover it.

That article is pyscho-babble recycled from the 70s.
 
Quote from Scalper007:

Great post Hydro. I agree with you 100%. Hard work doesn't get you anywhere without luck and the right people connections.
More...

What does Hydro know about being great? He's one of the biggest whiners on ET, and always has an excuse why things didn't work out in his favor, and it always because of someone else. Software, specialist, internet connection, bad firm, not enough capital, overweight, too smart, not smart enough, not the right religion, etc.

I say Bullshit...you make your own luck in life. The traders I know that make the most money, do so because they work the hardest, have the discipline, do their diligence, and stick to their plan, and focus on achieving hitting their target. Luck has very little to do with it.

If you work on being the best you can be, focus on improving yourself every day, apply yourself to that end, you will become great. Might not be the greatest, but you can be great.
 
Great article and great post by Hydro..

this is a really difficult topic we all think through our lives. is it luck, genetic, etc.

the truth is a bit of both. Hydro mentioned the Russian Oligarchs. My question is this, can't anyone be a oligarchs if they wanted to?

the question is how many of the oligarchs were born oligarchs. Can't I be one if I was deadly in love with money and had no morale? would this not naturally form great networks for me? - do you think people walk on the street asking to be ur friend?

People talk about being in the right place at the right time. but did someone knock bill Gates bed room and hand him the idea?

Einstain had great imagination. he was poor at school but he spent much of his life thinking of 1 problem.

There are exceptions. Not all people are tall and no all people born, and we're not all short: not everyone is born a mozart and we're not all geniuses. But what's the marginal gain Mozart had over other well known composers who worked towards it? some start early some start late. we aim to be successful - not THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SPECIE EVER LIVED. thats ridiclous.

in summary, Bill Gate had already spent alot of time thinking and had ambition. Einstain focused, and other had passion. without will what is there to be? every adventure in life starts with a plan. some get their early some later. practice certainly makes perfect.

IT IS UP TO U TO GO OUT THERE MAKE FRIENDS AND SUCK DICKS if u please. - if u feel it's an element of success - and it certainly is.

BUT how many people do that actively? some even feel digraded.

it's all an element of hunger in life. the more u want something, the more curiosity u have, the more u will think of it and work towards it. the more benches u press the more muscle, and it happens that on a rainy day it keeps u warm. WE ALL GET COLD by the rain, but some less because of the press they worked towards, - and the skinny ones call it LUCK.

great opportunities are splattered in the face of even the biggest losers. it's really how badly you're looking for it and how well you're prepared for it once it comes along.

lets also note that success isn't JUST wasting alot of energy. it's about planing, making decisions and commtiment. someone said alot of americans work hard, but how many of them have plans? if u're working hard and achieving little, you're doing something wrong. of course not everone can be a tiger wood, but we all have our potential. and the great thing in life is, you all need to meet ur own potential to succeed, not be totally someone else. Not all great composers made music at 5, and most physicists spent a great deal of their lives studying in their discoveries.
 
I totally agree with the above posters comments, in America- with enough hardwork and dilligence, you can do anything.


Look at clement stone.
 
This is interesting.

Mohammed ali , said he was the greatest-and everyone beleived it.
He kinda proved it too, which helps.
If he'd gone out and lost, lost, lost, he would now be what.........the biggest trash talk'in loser ever?

I dont think you can say, he was the hardest working fighter out there.
At some point, it all comes together and clicks, or it doesnt.

How does it work, that if you throw in the towel , your a "quitter" or a "loser", but if you keep going, plugging away, you might be regarded as "hard working" and "dedicated"-even if the results are the same.

Have to be in it, to win it though.
 
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