The power of DOING

“Doing” must be one of the most over-looked and underappreciated aspects of success. Of course you have to start the doing, which is why I named my blog Begin the Begin – the act of actually starting is usually the first prohibitor to success.

And while doing, you also have to be willing to fail. To be successful, you gotta fail.

But the hard work that comes from actually rolling up your sleeves and doing, that’s where all the magic happens. The work ethic and determination has to be there, and that really applies to being successful at anything. In fact working your face off was #5 on my list of being excellent at anything.

People that I know that are successful are never referred to as lazy or slackers. They DO, and they DO as hard as anyone around them.

I learned this lesson early in life as I watched my dad run his vending company. He would leave at 4:30 or 5:00am and come back by 6:00 or 6:30pm…and do it six days a week. Because that’s what it took. I remember the first summer I worked for him when I was in college, and by the end of the first week I got home around 6:30, went to my room, laid down on my bed in my clothes…and he woke me up at 5am the next morning and I was in the same position (and clothes) from when I laid down the night before. I was so wiped it was ridiculous.

When we were getting our business going in the early 2000’s, I can’t say that we were smarter than any of the other web shops, or that we had some process that was particularly better, but I can say one thing for sure, no one worked harder than us. They might have worked just as hard, but they didn’t out-work us, I’m certain of that.

Jim Courier was famous for being in ridiculous shape as a tennis player. In fact I remember after winning the Australian Open one year he went for a ten mile run. A few hours after winning the tournament.

I remember when he was asked later in his career how many matches he thought he had won because of being in great shape, he replied, “I don’t know if I ever won a match from being in good shape, but I know I never lost a match from being out of shape.”

That’s a massive statement.

This post was inspired by an article called, The Discipline To Do, which I learned about from Sean Wood’s Tumblr blog. Thanks, Sean!