July 28, 2007

What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Hard Work

Chris Cree wrote this at 7:20 am

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” –Harry Golden

The Blame Game

We live in a lottery culture. Instant gratification is the working model we are presented with most times. If it doesn’t happen right away, then most folks tend to give up.

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When they give up they tend to fall into one of two categories, both of which are looking to find a place outside themselves to affix the blame for their lack of success. I guess our psyches are somehow wired in such a way that as long as there is an outside source that we can point to as the cause of our circumstance, then we can press on without facing the pain of actually working though our own part in events leading up to where we find ourselves.

This blame phenomenon is so prevalent in our culture that we used to joke about it when I was in the Navy. “It doesn’t matter if you fix the problem as long as you fix the blame.”

The first category of blame fixers either point to some entity as the cause of their circumstances (“I can’t save any money because the government taxes me too much.”) or they will double down on their circumstances and blame one circumstance for another (“I can never be wealthy because I was born poor”).

When I ask one of these folks how they are doing I’ll probably hear something like, “{Sigh} OK. Under the circumstances.” I want to fire right back, “What are you doing under there?”

But usually I don’t.

Luck be a Lady

The other group of people are inclined to pin outcomes squarely onto “luck”. If things go well, especially for someone else, it is because they have luck. And when things don’t go well, in particular where they themselves are concerned, it is only because they have bad luck.

Here’s how Dictionary.com defines Luck:

the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person’s life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities

The key is that the force is operating purely by chance. That way folks are spared the emotional trauma of attaching causes to actual people. And heaven forbid that actual person is themselves!

As long as we are talking about circumstances, let’s take a look at some of the circumstances from the life of the guy quoted up top there, Harry Golden.

Harry Lewis Golden (May 6, 1902–October 2, 1981) was an American Jewish writer and newspaper publisher. He was born Herschel Goldhirsch in the shtetl Mikulintsy, Ukraine, then part of Austria-Hungary.

In 1904 his father, Leib Goldhirsch, emigrated to Winnipeg, only to move the family to New York City the next year. Harry became a stockbroker but lost his job in the 1929 crash. Convicted of mail fraud, Golden served five years in a Federal prison at Atlanta, Georgia.

So you suppose he considered himself lucky or unlucky?

Hard Work

At some point something changed in Harry’s life. He went on to become a successful reporter and writer. Eventually he even received a presidential pardon.

Through hard work he turned his luck around.

But was it even luck to begin with? I would suggest that his early bad luck was in large part really just poor choices.

Why is it that lottery tickets are so popular?

I mean I know a young lady who religiously buys lottery tickets every week. She doesn’t have any extra money for them because she’s constantly complaining how broke she is.

Yet to her mind, winning the lottery is the only hope she possibly has to ever become wealthy.

To her it is all about luck and not about working hard to learn how money works or about how wealthy people work with money.

Let me ask a question. Are lottery winners lucky?

If so, how come such a huge percentage of them are far worse off financially (not to mention all the relationships in their lives that tend to get destroyed in the process) after only a few short years than they were before they “won”?

On the other hand folks that work hard and build something, like say a business that produces wealth that lasts, are they more lucky? Or are they just working harder and making better choices than others are?

I suspect good circumstances are far more often a result of hard work and wise choices than random chance.

But that’s just the Way I C it.

–Chris Cree, SuccessCREEations.

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17 Comments to “What is He Talking About? Chris Cree on Hard Work”

  1. July 28th, 2007 at 8:55 am
    Kevin Paulson said

    Interesting article. I have a couple of simple rules in life…. NO Fault, NO Blame, NO Whining, and NO Excuses…..

    What I can do in life is accept, respond and remain detached.

    Kevin C. Paulson

  2. July 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
    Steve Remington said

    I happened upon this post by pure luck…

    :D

    Liz, good post and I think we all fall victim to this from time to time. When you let your luck take over your life then it is time to turn things around. I do believe in chance… but I think we have a lot more control over our own lives than we give credit to.

    I like the part where you said his bad luck was probably due to a series of bad choices. I know people who get themselves stuck in life’s bad vices and shrug it off as bad luck. But if you can dissect their lives prior to these incidences you will more than likely find inexperience coupled with bad choices. ;)

  3. July 28th, 2007 at 10:09 am
    Mike said

    Chris,

    “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

    That old saying nails it for me.

    Mike

  4. July 28th, 2007 at 11:21 am
    Chris Cree said

    Kevin, I’m with you up to the point of staying detached. Not sure how detached I am from things in my life, nor how detached I’d want to be.

    Steve! It’s been a while, man. How’s Milton these days?

    If something’s beyond our control does that mean it becomes entirely up to chance? Or can we influence even things we can’t control?

    So Mike, are you saying that there is no chance in life? Can we prepare for every eventuality?

  5. July 28th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
    Dar said

    Hi, Chris

    Enjoyed your thoughts. I can’t say I disagree with anything in your article.

    If we believe that things happen due to ‘good’ or ‘bad’ luck, it’s like saying our fate is always at the mercy of the elements. Then, we don’t have to look inward. That would be a great loss.

    It would mean never learning from our mistakes, or even from our successes, because they just ‘happened.’ It would mean no growth (stagnation).

    In the end, it would mean no freedom, because freedom isn’t found (it isn’t stumbled upon). It’s created. :-)

    Great job, Chris!

  6. July 28th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
    zakman said

    Hey Chris!

    I’m so late tonite! Thank God Liz is not around :)

    Luck, I think, is totally a matter of personal opinion. I might think I’m suffering from ‘bad luck’… but that’s just what I think. It’s only a point of view, maybe even a personal philosophy.

    But then again, I don’t think hard work is fool proof, either. It’s more like coincidences. Is coincidence another word for luck? I don’t know. Someone tell me?

    Are lottery winners lucky?

    A couple years ago, EVERYTHING in my life was going my way, just as I wanted it. Money, jobs, relationships… even the weather.

    I thought I was going through a ‘lucky’ phase, something in the stars, maybe.

    And I thought if I was so ‘lucky’, I should try and extend my ‘Midas touch’ a little more and try and win some lottery. (I don’t even have the gambler instinct.)

    Did I win a dime? No.

  7. July 28th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
    Kirk M said

    I was always of the mind that if a problem crops up, get the problem fixed first and then go search for the cause. One of the best ways to get me to stop listening to someone or anything that someone might say in the future is to immediately lay blame for a problem on someone or something else. There were times in the past I could have easily sloughed off blame to some other source but those types of “laying blame” always comes around and bites you back eventually (and we all know where it bites don’t we?). I learned real fast early on that if I made a mistake the best thing to do is to own up to that mistake and then go after fixing the problem. If the problem wasn’t caused by me…same thing. Fix it first and talk later.

    Instant gratification is another story though. When I was in my twenties I was just as guilty as everyone else. Then, somewhere around thirty life handed me some real tough lessons to be learned and through these I learned exactly what the phrase “Go with the flow” really meant. Since then and with about 15 more years of practice I have no problem with having patient and waiting for that right moment or opportunity when it comes along. “Patience is” and all that.

    One day I might even become bright enough to actually notice and take advantage of what I’ve been patiently waiting for when it finally does happen to saunter by. :D

  8. July 28th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
    Kirk M said

    Oh, and you’ll notice I didn’t touch the subject of “luck”. I consider it unlucky to do so. :P

  9. July 28th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
    Mike said

    Chris,

    Of course we can’t plan for everything. However, we can prepare ourselves to respond intelligently to the curveballs life throws are way, and that often puts us at a great advantage vs. our competitors!

    Mike

  10. July 28th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
    Mike said

    Sorry, OUR way…

  11. July 29th, 2007 at 6:03 am
    Chris Cree said

    Thanks Dar!

    Freedom isn’t found. It’s created.

    I like that. Most times it’s only created after a tremendous amount of work too.

    Without work there is no miracle.

    Zakman, we sure don’t have to agree. Heck, if everyone thought like me the world would be a real big mess!

    I’m not sure anything is foolproof. Fools tend to be very determined at making a mess of things.

    But my opinion is that hard work has a higher percentage payoff that banking on luck. I reserve the right to be wrong, though. ;)

    Kirk, if you ever get that figured out would you share it with the rest of us? I know I don’t have that patience thing mastered yet!

    Mike, so it’s sort of like creating flexible, adaptable plans then that we can change according to new circumstances as they come along?

  12. July 29th, 2007 at 6:32 am
    Ted Demopoulos, The Blogging for Business Guy said

    One of my extremely lazy yet brilliant friends sometimes hits me with “I’m a permanent member of the underclass” nonsense. A quick slap to the side of the head or boot in the ass usually resets reality for a little while!

  13. July 29th, 2007 at 7:20 am
    Chris Cree said

    Ted, sounds like your friend has tricked himself into believing he’s trapped under his circumstances.

    To quote something Gorgeous said to me right after I’d done something rather silly,

    How can someone so smart be so dumb?

  14. July 29th, 2007 at 8:42 am
    Kirk M said

    Hey Mike,

    Responding intelligently works great as long as day to day situations remain constant…which they don’t of course, so what about when that curve ball comes flying at you when your having one of those days where your stressed right out thin? One of those exasperating “what next?” type of days.

    Just playing devil,s advocate here. :)

  15. July 29th, 2007 at 8:48 am
    Kirk M said

    Hey Chris,

    If I ever do I’ll be sure to let everyone know and BTW…extremely smart people like us excel at being dumb. Personally, I think it’s a quality to be proud of. After all…the ladies have always been of the opinion that men aren’t capable of doing two things at once and this quality of ours proves them wrong.:)

    Hmmm, I have to walk down to the store now so I’d better get rid of this bubble gum…

  16. July 30th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
    Mike said

    Hi Kirk,

    The brink of panic. That’s when you need your preparation the most! See my thoughts on the subject here.

    (Not that I don’t let my inner reptile get the best of me with regularity)

    Mike

  17. July 31st, 2007 at 10:45 am
    Ashish Mohta said

    Luck is last thing most people get. Best is to work your way out. It might be little painful but its pays. Luck might give you instant popularity but to keep it up you still need to work hard there is no other way.

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