The Secret Of Success

The Secret of Success: Let me tell you a little story.

It’s about a young man who wanted to know the secret of success, and decided to seek this wisdom out from a Guru.

Now this was a wise, old sage who knew every secret of life, including the in’s and out’s on how to be successful. He lived in splendid isolation on a mountaintop. The young man set out on his difficult journey to meet this wise man and have him instill life’s secret to success into him.

He was determined to reach the top no matter what.   He overcame many life threatening obstacles on his way. Fighting through thick forests, scaling huge boulders, escaping from wild beasts, at last he clambered to the peak and lay on the ground, gasping for breath.

Finding the Secret of Success Mentor

A few minutes later, he sat up… and beheld the Guru seated in deep meditation.

Silently, he waited. Almost an hour later, the Guru opened his eyes and glanced at the man. He raised an inquiring eyebrow.

The man stammered, “Oh wise and all-knowing seer, I come to you in search of the secret of success.”

The Guru didn’t reply. He simply stood up and started walking down the hill.

The man followed. He found it difficult to keep pace with the old man, who seemed to skip from one rock to the other like a mountain goat. They walked steadily for another hour, and he wondered if they were going back to the foothills.

Suddenly, they came upon a clearing. In the middle was a clear lake. The waters were still, glinting softly in the rays of a setting sun.

The Guru walked up to the edge of the lake and beckoned the man closer. With a gesture, he asked him to kneel down.

Unquestioningly, the man did as the Guru ordered.  ”Ahh… Finally,” thought the young man, “This is going to reveal the Secret of Success.”

Suddenly, he felt himself seized by a strong hand at the back of his neck. His head was forced down under the water, and held there firmly.

“This is some kind of test,” said the man to himself, as he sat still.  ”This will show me the secret of success?”

A minute passed, and he was growing breathless. The grip on his neck hadn’t weakened. Another minute crawled by, and now he was getting anxious. His heart beat heavily in his chest, his throat tightened, and his lungs screamed for air.

He struggled to arise, and the old man’s grip became even stronger, pressed him further down into the water.

Now, the man was in a panic. He thrashed around wildly, trying with all his energy to loosen the vise around his neck. Precious seconds passed, and he felt his strength slowly ebbing away.

He thought he was going to die!

Just as he was about to give up hope, rueing his folly in ever coming here, the hand on his collar let go.

Violently leaping onto the shore, the man drew in his breath in heaving gasps. Delicious oxygen flooded his lungs. His vision grew clearer, the hammering in his throat slowed down, his hands stopped trembling.

And he felt a deep anger welling up from within himself.

Standing up, he faced the Guru and screamed: “Are you CRAZY? You could have killed me!”

The Secret of Success Revealed

The Guru simply stared at him for a long moment.

Then he spoke for the first time.

“You wanted to know the secret of success. Here it is. Do you remember, just a few minutes ago, how badly you wanted to take that next breath of air? When you want success that badly, you will have it. That’s the secret of success.”

Without saying another word, he turned around and walked back to his hilltop abode.

*****     The Secret of Success     *****

When I was roughly 10 years of age, give or take a year or two… My dad took my younger brother and I, along with another Dad and his 2 boys white water rafting on the Chattooga River.  If you’ve ever seen the classic movie Deliverance starring Burt Reynolds, it’s that crazy body of white water that I refer to here minus anyone squealing like a pig.  The dad’s had promptly lied about each of their youngest son’s ages to get them into the raft and on the river and away we went.  Our party of adventurer’s put in our rafts early in the morning just at daybreak and set out to attack section 3 of the Chattooga River.

 We rafted all day long, stopped for a warm riverside lunch mid-day and were flat out worn out 7 or 8 hours later when we had conquered the river.  Hamburger party 1, river 0.  As we were getting ready to pull our rafts out and make the long trek back to a hot shower and meal that awaited us, I summoned up the courage to ask the kayaker that accompanied our rafting excursion if I could take his kayak for a ride.  It was one of the coolest feelings I had ever experienced.  After paddling hard all day long in a big heavy raft down a very aggressive and unforgiving river, sitting inside the kayak was completely different.  The kayak was sleek and agile.  It was like getting out of the driver’s seat of a bus after driving in rush hour traffic for hours and getting behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Turbo.  Everything was going just fine and I’m sure I was sporting a smile from ear to ear… that is until Alex, my dad’s buddy’s kid who was with us, decided to flip me over.  I had not seeked out the Guru for the secret to success.  Why me?

Alex and I had seen the guy in the kayak flip over and pop back over all day long.  So I’m sure Alex thought no worries, let’s see Michael do it too.  Or maybe Alex was my secret to success Guru showing up in my youth to foreshadow the lesson at a young ripe age.  No problem.  Right?  The kayaker made it look so easy.  I wasn’t prepared to be flipped over but my boyish naivety and over confidence was all I needed to survive or so I thought. My first underwater experiment was that I tried shifting all my weight to one side… and nothing.  Underwater and no new air.

Next, I tried shifting from one side to the other… again, nothing and no new air.  With each failed effort I exhausted energy and oxygen from my system.  Finally, I was able to get my head out of the water just ling enough to take in a fresh breath of air and to say, “DAD!!!”

Nothing.  Back under the water I went and finally just when I was at the point of submitting to the river, I righted myself and popped back up.  It was an eye awakening experience for me.  It was my first semi-brush with what I perceived as death.  The adults, including the kayaker and river guides, never knew what happened.  They were busy packing everything up and getting ready to hike.  The incident lasted a lifetime when in reality it must have been less than a couple of minutes.

For me, looking back, it was one of the experiences that ultimately shaped my life.  I know for a fact what the young hero above may have felt.  I know what it is like to feel like I’ve taken my last breath and to fight for just one more!

I learned at age 10 or so the SECRET TO SUCCESS, although it wasn’t until many years later that I learned what to do with it and how to harness it.

I wanted to breath.  I wanted to live.  I wanted to get out of that kayak.

Fast forward roughly 10 years or so.

The year was 1991.  It was a hot August afternoon in Statesboro, GA.  I was moving into my new dorm for my Freshman year of college at Georgia Southern University.  I had moved all of my personal possessions from the safe haven of the parental unit’s (my childhood home) to the new wild frontier called COLLEGE.  My best friends and I had borrowed a truck from my Dad to drive down to school.  We had moved all of our stuff into our dorm and my parents finally arrived with my car and to oversee that we were moved in.

My Dad has always had a way of teaching me tough lessons in life that will serve me in achieving what I truly desire.  We were all moved into our dorm and Dad offered to fill my tiny cube refrigerator so off to Wal-Mart we went.  I’ll never forget the moment my life changed… it was the moment I realized I was about to have my head held under the water.

We had just walked out of the restaurant and were changing vehicles back.  Dad handed me a $100 bill.  As I reached for it, he held onto it and made the following statement, “Son, this is the last time I’m ever giving you money.  From this point forward, you’re on your own.”

This was a defining moment for me in life.  Sink or swim.  It was this moment that I realized that whatever I truly wanted in life was simply a choice and that I was fully capable of making it happen with focused determination and a work ethic.  It was an awesome awareness to learn this at a young age.  It was at this specific point in time that I made a choice to be successful in my life NO MATTER WHAT.

Ask yourself…  Success. How Bad Do You Want It?

One of my favorite country music songs is not about losing your wife, crashing your truck or having your dog run away…  It’s a song by Tim McGraw titled, “How Bad Do You Want It?”  I don’t care if you love country music or if it makes your blood curdle, INVEST a few minutes to listen to the words to this song.  Let the words sink in and take then inventory.

The Secret to Success…  How Bad Do YOU Want it?

If you’re not living the life you truly desire…  what are you going to do about it?

Visit www.QuitYourBoringJob.com now and reserve a private one-on-one consultation.  Your success awaits you.

$1,000 Day From Home Secret of Success – QuitYourBoringJob.com

I look forward to working with you.

Michael Hamburger