"Building" Something Great or "Being" Great: Basically, Success!'

I had a couple interesting conversations in regards to a book I read which led up to this post. Without going into too much detail, here are the two things to think about in regards to "greatness" . You may already know this but it's worth re-thinking.

You better love what you are doing? (Yes, you've heard this a million times!) Why I am repeating this? Well think about it this way...when you actually fell in love with whomever you are with or were, did you go about it rationally? Probably not! You maybe even made some really stupid mistakes or fell in love with the absolutely wrong person for you (my hand's raised). Yet, you did so without thinking about all the consequences. And to get this person to fall in love with you, whatever it took was what you did. Not what made sense or what people told you to do. You just went for it adapting as you went. Multiple hurdles probably appeared, yet you overstepped them. Maybe you even broke up with this person and did everything possible to get them back or just had to let them go (again, my hand's up). It's all terribly irrational and sometimes completely wrong but when falling in love you didn't give a shit. You just did it without thinking much. Everyone who has ever achieved greatness has had these moments early on where they just didn't give a shit. They went for it because they loved doing it. I'm convinced that to truly achieve success at something (be it business or private life) you have to love it to truly make the sacrifices and decisions (sometimes irrational) to get to that point. It better be the kind of love you feel for a person. It's not a rational feeling and isn't easily definable.  The saying "it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved before" sure has so much more meaning when you think about it in regards to things outside of just relationships.

On a completely different note, here's something regarding rational behavior which I've been questioning. You're always told to hedge your bets, spread out the risk and whatnot. This may be the biggest load of crap out there or if nothing else, a formula for mediocrity. When you look at truly great people past and present, be it Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, whoever....basically, the really rich, do you think they were rational financial planners when they got started? Nope! I highly doubt Steve or Bill were thinking about 401k's or Index Funds or whatever when founding their companies. They bet the whole farm on one investment. Most entrepreneurs are doing this. Betting the farm that it'll all work and the fact that you're screwed if it doesn't as motivation to bust your butt.

A couple ideas to ponder when going about your daily decision making and when you're trying to figure out whether you want to be good or great!