SUCCESS NOT A MATTER OF LUCK

#success #luck #BadLuck #opportunity #effort
Have you ever met someone who is envious of a successful person?

They are so lucky, that person thinks.

Then, they wish they had the same luck.

Not knowing anything about what the person had to do to become successful, they just presume the person was just lucky.

And they, of course, are unlucky for not achieving the same success.

Success, no matter how one defines it, is available to anyone.

The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is a combination of opportunity – not luck – and effort.

Opportunity is not something that comes by accident. Opportunity is sought. In other words, the luck comes to those who prepare for it by taking an opportunity that is presented to him or her.

Certainly, one has to know an opportunity when he or she sees it. The successful person will always look for an opportunity. The unsuccessful person will usually pass on an opportunity for various reasons including: too much work, too much to invest, they would never do such a thing, they would never consider such a thing etc.

These are excuses, for lack of a better term. If an opportunity is good enough, the successful person will overcome all of those hurdles mentioned above and find a way to get in.

Certainly, not every opportunity is for everyone. But if the desire for success is inside you, you will look at all opportunities until you find the right one for you.

In fact, someone you know, or perhaps someone you don’t know, may present something to you that you may have never considered before. If your desire for success is strong enough, you will check it out anyway.

Those who don’t look for opportunities have reached a stage of contentment with their lives. Whether they are indeed content may be debatable, but they don’t want to do what they would need to do to advance their lives further.

Still others are not content with their lives, but blame circumstances for their hardship. These folks “know their place” in life, and are envious of others who’ve achieved more. They blame others, or things, for their lack of achievement.

In short, everyone has the ability to be successful. Your education, experience or background may not matter, unless your idea of success involves a bunch of education and experience.

If you have the ambition, and are not the type to blame someone or something for your lack of achievement, there are opportunities out there for the taking.

You just have to be open-minded enough to look for them

Peter

FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

#freedom #responsibility #COVID19 #coronavirus #FlattenTheCurve #vaccinations
Personal freedom is your right.
But you have to use it responsibly.
You have the right to hurt yourself, but you have the responsibility not to hurt others.
To paraphrase the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, you have the right to swing your fist, but the responsibility not to bloody someone’s nose.
To again paraphrase Ben Franklin, we have the right to create a republic, but the responsibility to do what we must to keep it.
Personal freedoms are not just given. They are given with the caveat that we will use them responsibly.
Most of us, deep down, understand the concept. But, today, there are a few who apparently do not.
In terms of COVID-19 vaccinations, you have the right to refuse it, get ill, even die, though no one wishes that for anyone. You don’t have the right to get the virus and, however unintentionally, give it to someone else.
It all boils down to risk. Most everything we do in life involves risk. We make decisions on what to do, or not do, based on a risk (and reward) assessment.
Certainly, not all risks are worth taking. Some risks can be minimized. Some can be avoided. The key is to determine your risk tolerance based on good information, a strong feeling of self-preservation and a strong desire not to inflict unwanted hardship on others – even others you may not know.
Risk also abounds in the workplace. Most people, unless they are in knowingly risky professions, don’t see taking a job as a risk.
In fact, they see taking a job as a necessity, regardless of the hardship it brings. The risk comes in the form of missed opportunity, taking Job X instead of Job Y.
What if you took Job X, but Job Y is completely different. And you could do Job Y while keeping Job X?
There are programs out there that allow people to, while they are off from Job X, to devote a few part-time hours to Job Y. Perhaps, eventually, unless they really love Job X, Job Y may be all they need to thrive financially.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
Personal freedom ALWAYS comes with responsibility.
Think of freedom like a paycheck. You have the right to collect it, but you have the responsibility to do what you must to earn it.
One craves the freedom, but also must embrace the responsibility. One has the freedom to marry, but one must have the responsibility of fidelity to that marriage.
One has the freedom to choose, but has the responsibility to choose wisely.
One has the freedom to be a daredevil, but has the responsibility to ensure daredevil antics hurt no innocent bystanders.
So, if you support personal freedom, you MUST support taking the responsibility it requires.
Freedom and requirement are not mutually exclusive terms. We all cherish the freedom the U.S. allows. We have the responsibility to ensure that freedom does not hurt others.
Peter

THINKING ALONE WON’T MAKE YOU RICH

#IWannaBeRich #ThinkingRich #RichMindset #OpenToOpportunities
The duo Calloway sang it best in 1990: “I Wanna Be Rich.”
But, Personal Finance columnist Barry Ritholtz writes that just thinking about getting rich won’t make you rich.
“What’s the main thing that separates the rich from the poor? Ask any of the financially free people, and they will tell you the same: their mindset,” Ritholtz writes in his column, also published in the April 16, 2018, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ritholtz calls this thinking, “deceptive nonsense … rampant in the marketing materials aimed at gullible and desperate consumers.”
Still, he writes, Napoleon Hill’s 1937 classic “Think and Grow Rich” sold 20 million copies. “In the context of that very difficult time (the Depression era) we can give Hill a pass for reminding Americans of their can-do attitudes and boosting their self-confidence,” he writes.
For the less cynical, people who succeed first have to believe that they can. They have to have a strong “why” that pushes them to do what they need to do.
So the message in Ritholtz’s column should be: put your positive thoughts into action.
As leadership expert John Maxwell has said, the axiom “if you can believe it, you can achieve it” may not be true in all cases. To be a great opera singer, for example, one must not only believe they can be one, but have the natural talent and put in the hard work to hone that talent. Naturally, without the God-given talent – not just the ability to carry a tune — all the belief and hard work you can muster probably will not get you to the Met.
But positive thoughts, and the desire to succeed, are vital to success. Many of us have been engrained to “settle” for security. A good education gets you a good job, which gets you a good life.
But if you indeed want more than that – if you have a dream you believe you can achieve – you have to have your head in the right place.
You also have to be open to opportunities that may be presented to you, and recognize them as such.
There may be folks out there who want more than just security, have a great mindset, but don’t really have the vehicle to get them to where they want to be. If you are among those, there are actually many such vehicles out there. To check out one of the best, message me.
Ritzholtz is correct in saying that there is a whole industry out there that involves get-rich-quick schemes that don’t include hard work.
For some things, no matter how hard you work at them, you’ll never achieve what you want.
But, most of us are smart enough to know the difference between real and phony opportunities.
Some “millionaire mindset” suggestions have value, Ritholtz acknowledges. He cites becoming goal-oriented, living within or below one’s means, using extra money to invest in yourself or the stock market etc.
“You can become rich – but only if you meet or create great demand for a real service or product,” Ritholtz writes.
To shorten his message, think of it this way: “Just thinking or (believing it) does not mean that you will achieve it,” he writes. “Doing, on the other hand, at least gives you a shot at it.”
Peter

TRAINING AN IMMIGRANT TO TAKE YOUR JOB?

#opportunity #60Minutes #immigrants #JobsLost
It’s hard to believe that a company can tell a worker, who has been on the job there for, say, 20 years and has given his life to that company, that he will be laid off.
It’s harder to believe that same company would insult that same person by telling him that he CAN’T leave until he trains his replacement – an immigrant, who will make a good bit less than he did, to do the same work. If he leaves early in disgust, he loses his severance package.
The CBS News TV show “60 Minutes” reported on this practice on its March 19, 2017, edition. The report focused on groups of technology workers at various companies who are facing this.
The report talks about immigrants getting a special H-1B visa to come over here to do specially skilled jobs that could not be filled by Americans. But, as any law, some will find a way to exploit it. Companies are doing just that, the report says.
We can debate for hours what Congress and the president should do about immigration. But this report is not about low-skilled manual laborers. This is about highly skilled, and relatively highly paid, American workers who have needed skills, yet are getting kicked in the teeth.
It’s worse than digging one’s own grave, a worker told correspondent Bill Whitaker.
So, let’s break this down. If you have skills that are in demand, and believe you will never lose your job, think again.
If you believe the immigration problems in the U.S. are driven solely by immigrants, think again. This is a business-driven problem. There can be no reason this is going on, other than companies wanting to make or save money, no matter who is affected. These companies have ensured through lobbying that government isn’t going to mess with what they are doing.
So, logically, one could think, why are these immigrants, who obviously have skills they could parlay in their own country, coming here and agreeing to work for that much less in American dollars? It’s easy to presume that they are doing it because they are still making more than they would in any other country.
That’s may be true, but there may be another reason, and it has nothing to do with doing anyone any harm. It’s been said that one in 10 people who come to the United States from elsewhere become millionaires. That’s an astounding statistic. So these highly skilled folks may see potential opportunity to get rich by, say, inventing something, that they may not have in their home countries.
To back that up, Thomas Heath, in The Washington Post, reports that in Forbes Magazine’s annual list of the 400 richest Americans, a record 42 of them are immigrants from 21 countries. Heath’s story was also published in the March 20, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The fact that immigrants would make less than their American predecessors did, in the first job that brought them to the U.S., is insignificant to them. The OPPORTUNITY to be in the United States, and to do something great, is what drives them.
There is good news in all this for those displaced, highly skilled American workers. There are many vehicles out there for them to create their own, potentially lucrative, income, too. They may not know about them, or they may even believe that they cannot do what would be asked of them. Yet, they can potentially be not just financially stable, but potentially financially free, without that job they lost.
Such vehicles are available to anyone, regardless of race, education or background. To check out one of the best, message me.
In sum, immigrants WILL come, when they see opportunity. Companies will take advantage of every loophole in every law to improve their bottom lines. As a worker, there is little you can do about it. Your future is in your hands, no matter what happens to you.
Even if laws are changed, new loopholes will be created. The lesson here: ways to potentially fire the boss before he fires you are out there. Don’t be afraid to look for them, and look at them. You never know what someone, either already in your life or who will come into your life, may have his hands on. It could be a lifesaver for you.
As our parents used to tell us when we approached a railroad crossing that didn’t have lights or an arm that came down to block traffic when a train was coming: stop, look and listen. You never know when, or how or from whom, your opportunity will come.
Peter