The title of this post came from a wonderful quote, by comedian Steve Martin.
Steve was asked; ‘What’s the trick to making it in the entertainment industry?’
He replied; ‘Be so good that they can not ignore you!’
The thing about tricks & hacks
Small business owners are always looking for the ‘trick’ or the ‘hack’, which will get them where they want to be. Here’s what we know about people who try to hack their way to the top: It doesn’t work very well. The tiny percentage of people who manage to hack their way to some degree of success, find it’s short lived.
Why? I think my mentor Jim Rohn put it best. I’m paraphrasing here, but Jim would say that if someone were to hand the ‘average’ person a million dollars, they’d better learn how to be a millionaire, because if they didn’t, their new found wealth would soon be lost. Jim was right.
Indeed this became such a problem that lottery companies had to start giving big-money winners access to wealth experts, because there were people going from millions to pennies in a few years. They knew how to pick the lucky numbers, but had no idea what to do with the money.
In short: You don’t need to be a genius to make it in business, but you do need to be wise enough not to fall for the tricks.