The Odds of Success

Has anyone ever heard of Steve Pavlina?  If you haven’t, then you should stop reading this post right now and head over to his site..  Just come back when you get done..

He just posted a great article titled, “What are the odds of becoming a black belt?”   The bottom line is quite simple, really.  Any informed person will check their sources when they decide to embark on a new journey (or business, or task, etc.).  They try to find out how viable it is, if they can succeed, and so on.  Those are all perfectly legitimate questions and ones that should be asked.

But when you get down to it, you have to ask yourself how bad you want to be successful…  Are you willing to put years of your time into a project to see it succeed?  If you are looking to be a professional blogger, are you able to immerse yourself in the culture for 3-5 years to become an expert?  In that time, a lot of people will come and go; there will be a ton of ‘new entrants in the market.’  But we know the majority of them won’t stay long.  Do you have the drive to stay with it?

As Steve points out, at the end of the day, statistics don’t matter.  What matters is your willingness to become the master, the expert of your field.  Find your niche, develop your product, and be the best there is at it.  Do it well, and you will be considered successful.  You will be included in that 1% who actually make it. 

And thanks Steve, keep up the great work!