You Can Make Yourself Successful In America
So here I sit in my luxurious room in a high-rise Las Vegas hotel, looking out at the sunset as I prepare for the welcome reception for this week’s wealth mastery conference. It’s a nice sunset, a nice hotel, and an exciting week ahead of me. And it’s making me think about how much life has changed for me o ver the years.
I can’t claim to be the classic rags-to-riches story… but I’ve certainly come a long way since the days when I paid for gas with quarters scrounged from the furniture and when my total daily food budget was well under a dollar.
When people, such as my beloved offspring or my coaching clients, ask me what my “secret” is, I say that it’s simple. There are two types of people in the world, and you have to be as much as you can of the one type and avoid spending much time as the other.
I’ve written about the two types many times before. I call them the Entrepreneur, and the Victim. And when I look back over the years at what has made the difference between where I sit today and where I was at my poorest times, I confirm that it’s been the choice to spend my days as an Entrepreneur, and the equally-important choice to avoid victimhood.
We are none of us perfect, and I confess I’ve been more Victim-like in my mindset at certain low points in my life. Before I learned the mindset of the Entrepreneur – that success comes from Hard Work, Luck, and Faith – I remember being convinced that life was all about Hard Luck, Work, and Fate. The odds always seemed stacked against me. I spent more time in fear than in hope, in anxiety than in excitement, in worry than in dreaming.
For me, it was a gradual shift over time to an Entrepreneur’s mindset, and of course I had help along the way. But it’s a shift each of us must make on his or her own… no one can do it for you.
So here I sit, surrounded by the trappings of success, and if I have only one piece of advice to give my children it’s this: start by dismissing your inner Victim. Have enough faith to believe in yourself and in others… as Zig Ziglar once said, if you help enough other people get what they want in life, you’ll get what you want. Work hard, and trust that things will work out for the best.
Unlike the games of chance going on several floors below me, life is not a trap. Stick to Hard Work, Luck, and Faith, and you’ll find the odds are stacked in your favor.
Michael Hume is a speaker, writer, and consultant specializing in helping people maximize their potential and enjoy inspiring lives. As part of his inspirational leadership mission, he coaches executives and leaders in growing their personal sense of well-being through wealth creation and management, along with personal vitality.