19

The “Secret” Is Hard Work

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, did your parents, or perhaps a teacher or some other authority figure, tell you that you could be or have anything you wanted, that you were only limited by your dreams? Mine didn’t, so maybe not… However, you are undoubtedly, like me, familiar with that concept. We love dreams. In the United States, we even have our very own American Dream. We go to movies with fairy tale, dream-inspired endings. If you wish it and you dream it, they say, it is all possible.

Hoping and Dreaming Aren’t Doing

People who wish and hope and dream for things are not so good with business. They spend more time hoping than doing. Have you ever met someone who spent so much time telling you about their dreams, that if they spent half the time they spent talking actually doing something, they would have accomplished whatever it was they were dreaming about in the first place? I know lots of people like that. Wishing never translates well into becoming an entrepreneur.

Chip Bell and John R. Patterson, authors of Take Their Breath Away, perfectly illustrated this in a guest post they wrote for my blog, Unsolicited Business Advice:

Three turtles sat on a log in the edge of the swamp. One decided to jump in. How many are now on the log? Nope, there are still three. Deciding and doing is not the same thing. Until you execute, all decisions are just plain-old intentions. Execution—putting skin in the game—is the true test of commitment. “I believe, I support, I approve” are all just weasel words unless they are coupled with visible demonstration.

This sage insight applies to starting a business, too. As Chip and John noted later in the piece, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Wishing, intending, and dreaming are not the same as doing.

Now, I have never personally read the new age self-help book, The Secret, that was a sensation a couple of years back, but my general knowledge of popular culture—from my late-night viewings of Oprah to my frequent visits to various pop culture websites—coupled with my discussions in social circles gives me the gist. The Secret touts the law of attraction, saying that if you think positively about something, that positive thinking will help you attract whatever it is you want. From what I understand, it suggests that if you create some kind of picture collage of your goal and use it as a visual aid to inspire you to keep thinking about that goal, that goal will be fulfilled. I think of it as sort of a perverted version of a book written decades ago by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich but without one key element: hard work.

Oh Yeah, That “Hard Work” Thing

This is where the difference comes into play between the wisher and hoper, and those with real desire. The wisher and hoper read the book literally. They want to make a million dollars, so they cut out pictures of money and all of the things they will buy with the money and tack it up on the wall. They look at it every day, think about it, dream about it, and wait for the good fortune to fall in their lap.

If you have desire, you let the money (or whatever may be on your vision board) be the goal and the fuel to pursue your dream. Then, you come up with a credible plan of action to achieve that goal. You use the positive attraction to help continue with your plan and keep you going when the times are tough, but you actually do the work. You don’t believe that your thoughts alone will bring you riches; you understand that by having a goal and a positive attitude you can have a path to achieve those riches if you stay focused and do the work. This is probably what The Secret was intended to convey, but not everyone got that message.

Do you wish you had a successful business, or do you desire to start a successful business? Do you hope you can be successful, or do you know that your desire for success will ensure its outcome? If you fall into the wishing and hoping camp, you probably don’t have what it takes to start and run a business. Businesses sometimes are fortunate enough to have some luck, but a good portion of that luck is made out of shrewd business decisions, dedication to the tasks at hand, and plain-old rolling-up the sleeves. Businesses are not successful because of miracles, vision boards, and good old wishing and hoping.

So, do you wish you had your own business, do you dream of having your own business, or do you have the true desire to be an entrepreneur and won’t let anything stop you from achieving that goal? Only one of those is the right answer if you want to start or buy a business.

RECOMMENDATION

There is no assessment here. If you want to take your dreams and create an action plan to move from thinking to doing, I recommend reading Barbara Sher’s Wishcraft. As of presstime, it is available free for download on her website, www.wishcraft.com.