The more I study successful people, the more I am reminded of the obvious.  Whether it is someone in the business world, sports world, or whatever, the best at their professions are those who are "into what they are in." 

I am not sure why our society looks upon successful people at the top of their "game" and concludes that they are lucky, or that they should be criticized and picked apart.  If someone achieves something great the conclusion seems to be that that person had breaks others didn’t have or cheated to get there.  This tendency runs right along with the trends in our national politics that feed off envy and class warfare.  "If they had less, we’d have more."  "It’s not fair."  "Equal opportunity is not enough.  We want equal results."

The real answer is that the successful person was burning for success and achievement while the unsuccessful was doing less productive things or behaving in less focused ways.  Michael Jordan is almost universally considered the greatest basketball player of all time, yet he is also legendary for his incredible work ethic, drive and determination.  Even at the top, perhaps especially at the top, he worked out consistently, intensely, and purposefully.  Tom Brady has achieved what few quarterbacks ever have, yet he is also known as the hardest working player in training and in study on every team on which he’s played.  Do I even need to mention Tiger Woods and his robot-like practice schedule?  Andrew Carnegie was notoriously hard working, even as one of the world’s richest men.  Bill Gates long tenure atop the software industry was marked by persistent attentiveness and tireless workdays.  Stephen King’s prolific writings come not only from a gifted and imaginative mind, but from his habitual work habits in which he holds himself responsible for writing a certain amount of words every day.

So many lessons we try to teach our children still apply to us.  None can be more true than the lesson of practice.  Practice, practice, practice.  Doing what you do makes you better at what you do.  Being at it, early and late, consistently and persistently, is what builds greatness.  Put your whole self in, again, and again, and again.  Be into what you’re in.  And do it over the long term.

Does it sound like a lot of work?  It is.  Does it sound like it might not be worth it?  That’s an individual choice.  Does it sound like greatness requires fantacism?  It does.  It also requires focus and time.  That’s just the way it works.  The laws of success are not open to negotiation.  Pay the price or don’t.  The choice is up to each of us.  But when someone else makes the choice for greatness in their chosen area, we should neither envy their rewards, nor down-play their achievement by calling them "lucky" or "talented."

In the words of Longfellow: "Heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night."