Who Wins?

There is no winning formula.Regardless of what anyone tells you, success is not one-size-fits-all.What propels one elite athlete to excellence may not propel you to the same level of performance.Someone else's business plan cannot be grafted onto your business idea with the same result.Your brother's job search is not your job search.You are you.They are them.So, beware people who want to sell you their "secrets".  Who offer you a success template.  Who say being successful is fast, easy, and assured - but only if you follow their plan.You are you.They are them.It's so natural, so human, so very optimistic to wish and hope and pray for an easy solution.  And, we think/hope/pray -  if it worked for someone else, then maybe it will work for me.We think: Maybe success will finally be easy.Because we'd all really like easy.Most of us would like what that old song promised: "That ain't workin', that's the way you do it, Money for nothin' and your chicks for free..."But life doesn't work like that.The best winning solution is the one relevant to who you are and where you want to go. The best solution is the one you can visualize for yourself, and create to your own specifications.The best solution really works for you.So why not ask the person who's selling you their wholesale, turn-key, nearly guaranteed thingy,  "Don't I deserve a customized solution for this price?"Because you do. If you want to be truly successful.Unfortunately, the seller's personal success plan is based on wholesaling solutions to you and hundreds or thousands of hopeful types just like you.  Customized takes too much time, is too difficult, is too specific, is too long-term. Customized requires a relationship, for heaven's sake.  It's hard to be a jet-setting, Internet famous, location independent superstar when you have to bother with relationships with clients!The real problem for "secret" sellers is this:  Customized can't be re-sold in the same way turn-key solutions can be sold - over and over and over again.[Which, by the way, is the "secret of success" many folks will teach you. Just saved you $15,000.]There's not the same kind of money in telling you that success may take a little thoughtful customization. Telling you success may take some time.  It may take some failure, and learning. May need revision.  May be found in something completely different than you expected. May not come at all.  Hard to sell that in a weekend workshop, or a high-priced mastermind group, huh?When you were a kid, did you ever read Aesop's fables?  I did. And there's one I keep coming back to - The Tortoise and The Hare.Let me ask you, in that old fable, who ultimately won the big race? Was it the Hare, who ran so fast that he could rest during the race, who impressed the girl bunnies, who had so many tricks up his sleeve, who was so flashy?  Or, was it the Tortoise, who kept on plugging away, kept going step by step, kept to an approach consistent with his turtle nature?Of course, it was the Tortoise. But it's easier to sell the flash of the Hare than the steady plodding of the Tortoise.That is, if you're selling flash and tricks.Friends, there's just one secret to success: be yourself. Consistently.  Patiently.  Kindly.  Generously. True to your own nature.That's it. That's all. That's the starting point.You deserve a customized solution. Demand it.  And you'll win your race.