Seth Godin on Effort and Luck

Every so often, I read something on the internet that is simple yet lifechanging. This is one of those things.

You can't control luck. You can control effort. I can't tell you how dispiriting it is to watch some lazy lucky idiot or some cocksucking slacker bitch get ahead. I have lost count of the number of times I've heard someone say, "It is not what you know. It is who you know."

I think a lot of people have given up because they see some clueless bitch like Paris Hilton being where she is. But to Paris's credit, she was not content to be an heiress. She got out there and did something to make her own money. She was lucky to be a Hilton and to have the media's attention. But she did do something more than resting on these laurels of good fortune.

I look at the goals I want to achieve in my own life, and all of them are directly tied to my own efforts. I realize that I will probably never have the outsized success of a lottery winner or even Sarah Palin. But I know what I can achieve, and my biggest obstacle has been and probably will always be my own laziness.

Seth Godin has given me a kick in the pants, so I will now get off my ass and work a little harder. We will see where it gets me. I may fail, but Seth has taken away my excuses. The responsibility rests with me.

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