Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They possess significant advantages like talent, intellect, charm, good looks, wealth, or fame. For them, success comes easy.

But not every success story starts out that way. Many people succeed in spite of the fact that they have no special advantage. What’s their secret? Let's find out.

The Road to Success

Is luck a factor in success? While it is always welcome, luck is not really something we can count on. Fortunately, there is a more certain way to succeed. One of our founding fathers put it this way:

“The harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”
Thomas Jefferson

Success is the product of dedication and effort, coupled with inspiration and ability. Success stems from doing the things that we don’t want to do when we don’t want to do them. It’s the result of overcoming obstacles, often of our own making. Success is the fruit of hard work and dedication. It comes from remaining focused on the goal no matter how chaotic our lives may be. Do you want to be on the road to success? Do that and you will not only get there, you’ll be in the fast lane.

Pick a Flavor

Success comes in many different forms and it’s not always measured in dollars, nor should it be. Success can be defined as maintaining a healthy relationship, helping others, raising good kids, or most any worthwhile endeavor. Success is what you define it to be.

Get Moving

The road to success has many onramps, but you will never find one if you don’t start moving. Do something – anything! Whatever it is, it will likely be wrong. That’s okay, everyone makes mistakes, especially at first. It is far better to have a misstep than to never step out at all. If you aren’t making any mistakes, you probably aren’t doing anything. Someone who accomplished much in his life said this:

“The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.”
Walt Disney

Find a Way

Claire works in retail but wants to open her own store. She looked into leasing a place at the mall but decided against it. Too much money upfront, too many hours, and too much risk. It seems like every day another brick and mortar store declares bankruptcy. 

Instead, Claire decides to open an online store. She likes the idea of working whenever she wants, and she will tell you that being chained to store hours is no fun.

Claire can’t afford to hire a programmer so she decides to create the site herself. She buys a book on e-commerce and another on web design. Pretty soon the makings of an online store emerge. Along the way, Claire discovers she likes programming and writing code. At some point she makes a course correction and sets her sights on a new goal. Fast-forward a few years and now Claire is the proud owner of a successful business that builds online stores.

Patience

Everything seems to move at warp speed today. Our relationships and time with our family seem to be microwaved. God help us if we don’t return a text message immediately. As we sprint through life at breakneck speed, some things can’t keep up.

After investing our time and money in a start-up, we want to see results immediately. But it doesn’t work that way. A business takes time to set up and become established, and even longer to earn loyal customers. How long? It takes as long as it takes. Some things in life have the audacity not to adhere to our imposed schedule.

“If you look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” 
Steve Jobs

The virtue of patience is in short supply these days. Whether it’s a business or other endeavor, we need to be more patient. Besides, with more time comes more new ideas and inspiration. If you have a goal, commit to sticking with it no matter how long it takes and you will succeed.

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