If you work hard, what is hard will work, but if you take shortcuts, you will be cut short. There are no secrets to success; you must show up daily, believe in yourself, and execute relentlessly. There is a price to be paid for sustainable long-term success, and that involves doing the work and playing in the long game by seeing the end in mind. We play the way we train. We get rewarded in public for what we repeatedly practice in private. As former boxing world heavyweight champion Joe Frazier once said, “You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes – that means your [preparation:]. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you’re going to get found out now, under the bright lights.”
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Begin it now. – William Hutchison Murray