It's not the will to win that matters - everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters. - Legendary Alabama Football Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
We all want to succeed in one way or another. Some want to be great athletes, some want to excel in business, while others want to dominate the stock market.
A great number of people in our society jump from "desire to succeed" to "living like they have". Kids out of college, often will buy an expensive car with their first paycheck. A small bonus at work will often lead to an extravagant vacation. It is no wonder that there are so many people in financial trouble today. They are missing something in the middle.
"Desiring to succeed" and "living the good life" are two like bookends - they are somewhat meaningless without any books in the middle. Those books represent preparation, hard work, long hours, self sacrifice, discipline, and everything else necessary to achieve true success. A lot of times the bookends are more ornate than the books they hold up, which makes them more desirable to the uninitiated.
I must admit I have an insatiable desire to win and my human nature sometimes wants to skip all that hard work sandwiched between my desire and the fruits of victory. Each time I try to short-cut the process it ends in disaster. "I don't need to research that stock, I have friends making a killing off of it." I bought it, and I got killed.
In my own life I have found that the good life only comes after a great deal of preparation and toil. I'll let you in on a secret - after a while you learn to like preparation and journey more than the destination.
Life is a journey, we all need to learn to enjoy it.
Full Disclosure: No position in the aforementioned securities. See a list of all my Dividend Growth Portfolio holdings here.
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