The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 3It Will Require Work

Lives of great men all remind us / We can make our lives sublime, / And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time; / Footprints, that perhaps another, / Sailing o'er life's solemn main, / A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, / Seeing, shall take heart again. / Let us, then, be up and doing, / With a heart for any fate; / Still achieving, still pursuing, / Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—“A Psalm of Life” (1838)

Let's start with this today: no matter what you choose to do, if you choose to get good at it, it will require work. Sorry, there's no way around it; it will require a lot of work. Some jobs are more demanding than others, but it's all pretty much uphill, particularly if you're just getting started.

Feeling pumped now?

Here's the trick if you want it to not feel like work: don't bother trying to figure out what you love; figure out what you have to give, how you can serve, how you can make someone's world a little better.

There's nothing terribly grand about this idea. It's actually rather practical.

Imagine what a messed-up world we would live in if everyone got to choose what they thought they would love to be. We would have way too many best-selling authors, inspirational speakers, and celebrity game show hosts, wouldn't we?

Everyone is unique, and there's probably a unique way we are supposed to use this fact to inform how we show up in the world. That's your job; figure that out and get really ...