A Fail-Proof Success Equation

In December, I decided I need a change of scenery. Work scenery.

In order to make this happen, I would need to get my husband sold on the idea that he, too, wanted a change of work scenery so that we could switch home office spaces.

I would probably have to give up my title of “Sales Barista” if I didn’t get him to buy what I was selling. Don’t worry. I’m still the Sales Barista.

While we were moving, a little bit of clearing out and cleaning up needed to take place. That’s when John came across a plastic holder full of twelve 3.5” floppy disks. Talk about a blast from the past.

“I can throw these out,” he said.

O, H-to-the-E-double-hockey-sticks no way.

“Those have all of my writing from college on them,” I replied and quickly grabbed them from his trash-happy hands.

Two months later, with the help of an Amazon Prime-purchased disk reader, I finally freed my hidden written gems.

Disk after disk, I opened words written over 15 years earlier. As they appeared in front of me, in black and white, they felt like an old friend who I hadn’t seen in a while. It was as if no time had passed at all.

I didn’t need the disks to remember all of what was written. Some of my stories, poems, and random musings are forever etched in my mind.

I’ve been writing ever since I can remember. It’s how I’m wired, stamped directly in my DNA, from my first book at age 9 with a main character that was a rainbow named Colors to this piece you’re reading now. It’s always been there, inside me, waiting to come out.

It’s how I realized the perfect success equation: success begins with talent, develops with training, and maximizes with time.

How to gain success with my fail-proof equation:

• Start with Your Talent. I’m not sure when or how it began, but I know it did at a very young age. I would creatively arrange words onto paper to tell my story, most of the time for only me to see. I wrote my first book (and illustrated it, high five!) and continued to find a love of painting pictures with words. This ability to write is woven deep inside my soul. My current success started all those years ago with a seed of talent thankfully nurtured by myself and encouraged by my parents. What is your talent? 
• Develop Your Talent with Training. Writing developed over the years with practice. I would write in journals (not diaries) and continued to write books and stories for school. I wrote a poem about my grandmother and her battle with Alzheimer’s that was published. I wrote speeches. I then took a more formal approach in college by taking so many creative writing classes that I was only a few credit hours short of a minor. I continued to develop my skills by learning, training, and practicing with an attitude knowing I could do better, learn more, and fine-tune my skills, allowing me to craft a better story and deliver greatness through pen on paper. How are you developing your talent?
• Maximize Your Talent with Time.  In an age where everyone wants everything right now, there are a lot of people that forget in order to “have it all” you have to put in the hard work and, more importantly, time. This is the magic potion to success you’ve been searching for but are unwilling to accept. Time. It takes time and experience to reach success and a crap-ton of hard work. It’s how you maximize all you have to offer this world. You work on it, day in and day out, and you never, NEVER, stop learning or yearning to be better.

There you have it. A fail-proof success equation. You only have to decide when you’ll begin to use it. 

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