I had dinner with a group of friends the other night. I hadn’t seen one of my friends in several years, so it was fantastic to catch up with her.
My friend is a successful businesswoman. Her company runs several profitable restaurants and a variety of other businesses.
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At the end of the evening, one of the ladies casually mentioned that she was a lucky girl.
In that instant, I had an Aha moment.
Her success had nothing to do with luck.
It had a lot to do with hard work. It had a lot to do with her ability to take risks and her ability to keep moving forward even when those risks didn’t pay off.
Years earlier, her first attempt at business failed but she kept going.
She changed strategy and moved into a different industry.
She persevered.
She continued to work hard and learned from business people who had more experience. She collaborated with business partners. She made wise investments.
She kept taking risks and working hard (you can see a pattern emerging here!)
She changed track when something wasn’t working and jumped at opportunities when they came her way. Her business diversified and she carefully selected people to help her manage the day-to-day operations.
She sold off parts of the business that weren’t delivering on their investment.
I know she had times when clients didn’t pay their accounts and she lost money. I have no doubt there were night’s she didn’t sleep well with worry.
I am sure there was probably a time when she wanted to give up.
But she didn’t.
She kept going.
She kept moving forward, kept growing, kept expanding. She worked her butt off.
Hard work is only part of the picture. Many of us work incredibly hard as employees but it’s often the company we work for that reaps the benefits.
That’s where our risk appetite can make a huge difference.
Our willingness to take risks can define our level of success.
Taking risks can be where all of the hard work pays off. High risks often reap high rewards. They can also mean falling from a great height and losing everything!
Did my friend get a few lucky breaks along the way? No doubt she probably had a few.
The rest she did herself through perseverance, hard work, determination, leadership and her ability to take risks.
To be successful you must persevere. Keep going and don’t give up until you have reached your version of success.
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