Get over it.

Not everyone hopes you are successful. Outside of your parents and (maybe) family; it is a lion’s den.

On the contrary most hope… heck, they pray that you aren’t successful. This applies to work, relationships, and generally everything.

Where does my cynicism originate? How can I be so pessimistic about my fellow-man? Easy… it’s human nature. When someone succeeds in business, work, a career, even in a relationship, it’s not easy. Success is the highest paying or rewarding “tough endeavor” and the lowest rewarding “easy endeavor.” Anyone who has succeeded at anything knows it is hard work. In any of these areas it might be a 24/7 effort. It is continuous and not a “one-off” chance. People’s envy of your success then can’t be explained for their failure or lack of success. Their explanation is luck, nepotism, it’s a scam, she sleeping with the boss; and the list goes on.

What is there, usually available for everyone is the opportunity. It’s what you do with that opportunity that separates the wheat from the chaff. How many times have you heard this: “He is self-made, and came off the boat with $12 in his pocket”? These stories are both true and inspirational. It proves that it is possible.

What makes it more difficult, as I have written before, are the Nay-Sayers. These are the people who are afraid. They are afraid to try. They are afraid to venture outside of any type of comfort zone and use any and all excuses to explain their lack of success. Like a child (hence the taunting tease headline) that never grew up, they are content to take what is given.

Do not listen or mind these people. I recently received a fake email from someone who actually took the time to set up and send me what they perceived as a negative article to one of my projects in stem cells. It came from Ididntinvest@knowyouknowwhy.com.

Seriously?

The funny part about it is that article actually was potentially groundbreaking in the use of stem cells, and good for us, but many years, if any away from therapies… unless of course, you are a mouse.

Simply put, ‘’successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” Successful people are willing to step outside their comfort zone. They won’t settle for a pay check and will be energized by the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, not paralyzed by the fear. They know that they are guaranteed to never fail if they don’t try and refuse to sit on the sidelines watching. They know there is a better life. They are willing to accept risk or failure…not blindly, but with calculation.

In 1865, Horace Greeley wrote”Go West, Young Man” concerning America’s expansion westward, related to the then-popular concept of Manifest Destiny.

Greeley favored westward expansion. He saw the fertile farmland of the west as an ideal place for people willing to work hard for the opportunity to succeed. The phrase came to symbolize the idea that agriculture could solve many of the nation’s problems of poverty and unemployment characteristic of the big cities of the East. It is one of the most commonly quoted sayings from the nineteenth century and may have had some influence on the course of American history.

Your future is never laid in stone. You have the power, at any age, to address it. All you need is the desire to change. If you need skills, you can get them (unless and you want to be an opera singer and you can’t sing)…it can be done. Ignore the Nay-Sayers and leave them behind.

In 1865, it wasn’t easy for a regular person to pick up and go from the east coast of the U.S., but many did. They left the safety; they left ready-made clothes, and infrastructure. They left the conveniences of modern life.  Some didn’t make it. Many did.

So let me ask you,”What kind of person are you?”