Comments
You Get Out What You Put In
I am one of those people who happened to meet some of the best people I will ever know at school. We have grown up together and despite the range of things we do (from web geek to environmental geek to Psychology geek, to hydrology geek and legal geek… You get the idea), we have all reached this age with a couple of things in common. We are uber driven and we have spent the last few years working ourselves to the bone: completing degrees while working full time, starting businesses etc etc.
And now we all find ourselves 24-25 and pretty successful.
Claire and I were laughing the other day at how many people meet us now and think we are watched over by some wonderful guardian angel who has blessed us since birth with presents delivered to our laps. Because, while we have been through the tough times together, people we’ve just met have only seen us getting scholarships, government funding, recognition and to the point we don’t have to work 24 hours a day.
Some times people say ‘Man you are so lucky to be able to take all these trips away’ or ‘wow you’re so lucky to get that funding’
And I find it a little offensive. I WISH it were luck, but unfortunately its purely long hours, a lot of stress, an ocean of tears and finally, after a good few years, some significant breaks. The upside being that all those people who despair at their bad luck can simply get off their butts, take the knocks and find themselves in the same situation we are.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
The harder you work, the luckier you get…
July 8th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
which in turn says luck has nothing to do with it (pardon the ad rip-off)
July 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
“to attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities”
“Men of action are favoured by the Goddess of Luck”
both from The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Glason
July 11th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
You are right, success is a dirty business. It’s like those “overnight successes” who have been playing dives for years before getting their big break. But if you have been learning good lessons along the way, you will be able to handle your success and capitalise on it … not just fritter it away ;)
July 14th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I get that a lot, when most people I meet tells me I am so *lucky* to be able to work from home, and be self-employed. They really didn’t see all those years of anguish, and like how you put it, ‘ocean of tears’. I totally empathise.