Shortcut to Success?

We love shortcuts and hacks. And we love anything that saves us time, effort, mundaneness, yet results in maximum returns.

Maybe you’ve heard of, and maybe even read or adopted, Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Work Week or his latest 4-Hour Chef. Or Fred Gratzon’s Lazy Way to Success. And now there’s Brian Moran’s 12 Week Year. Apparently, these folks know shortcuts the rest of use don’t and cleverly avoid the 10,000-hour rule Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in Outliers. But according to Seth Godin, sometimes it’s better to do the hard work (my spin here), and I have to agree with Seth.

While there’s certainly a place for shortcuts and hacks, success usually comes from two sources:  luck or preparation and hard work. Probability of luck being a positive factor is so minuscule that doing the daily work seems like the surer thing.

As a culture, we’re both enamored and mislead by those who find success easily. Truth is, appearances don’t reveal the work behind the success. We’re not there when they work those hours, or endure the countless rejections and failures before success finally happens.

Not saying those books don’t have value or won’t help push you closer. Just saying if it were that simple, we’d all be cajillionaires by now by writing our own “Seven Quick Hops to Lily Pad Riches” by I.M. Frog. Hmmm… where’s my idea list?