Shortcuts

We're a nation that worships the shortcut. If you want to avoid rush-hour traffic, you're always going to be on the lookout for the time-saving shortcut. Computer keyboards contain several shortcuts that can eliminate steps in your project. And the study of mathematics is made easier for some people when they employ shortcuts in their calculations.

But we're spoiled by the shortcut, too. We often think that every single path in our life must contain a shortcut, and that's just not true. Even worse, we tend to assume that someone who has been particularly successful must have automatically arrived at that point, as if by magic. But no.

A good example would be a professional athlete. Take Michael Phelps, for instance. Most people had never heard of him until he started capturing gold medals. Lots of gold medals, in fact. When he stood on the podium at the Beijing Olympics - eight times! - you only saw the final result. But there was no shortcut from the baby pool to Olympic gold. Phelps trained for hours and hours, day after day, for years. Years!

Conan O'Brien has been in the news lately. A lot. The late-night talk show host is walking away from NBC with about $30-40 million. You might read that headline and think, '˜wow, must be nice. He's lucky.'

Lucky? Do you know what it took for him to get there?

O'Brien studied his tail off in school. He was the editor of his high school newspaper, and the valedictorian of his graduating class. But that wasn't enough. He kept his head down and did his work throughout college and graduated magna cum laude. From Harvard, no less. Absolutely no shortcuts there. Then, with a love for writing, he began to pen jokes for other people. Yes, he made other people seem funny. He wrote for Saturday Night Live, then even took a turn writing for the hit series The Simpsons. All of this before the network recognized his hard work and offered him a terrific spot.

My foundation, The Big Brain Club, is all about helping young people not only develop their own creative spark, but to help them see their future. That doesn't mean knowing exactly what you want to do with your life by age thirteen; it means recognizing that what you do today will influence and shape your tomorrow. That includes understanding that shortcuts are great when you're trying to get to the theater on time to catch the movie, or when you're copying and pasting text.

But to truly be successful in life means paying your dues, putting in the work, and having the maturity to see what that hard work will produce later. It's a combination of seeing your future, and working for your future. So the next time you think someone was '˜just lucky,' remember what Thomas Jefferson said: 'œI'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.'쳌

No shortcuts for Mr. Jefferson.

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