“You don’t win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training.”
- Seth Godin

Do I really need to elaborate on the amount of time, effort, energy, persistence, and dedication required to compete in the Olympics? The daily routine of practice, practice, practice. I once heard Mary Lou Retton (the Olympic gymnast) speak. She said the gymnasts knew when the coaches said, “Great! Let’s do it one more time,” that really meant practice was only about half way over.

Compare the “Olympic” mentality to what I call the “McDonald’s” mentality. We live in a society where we want everything right now with no waiting involved. We want our food instantly, our packages delivered overnight. Oh yes, and we want all of our excess weight off in a week too!

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it doesn’t work that way. The best wines are still aged. In fact, I recently watched a show on the Food network that explained how chocolate has to be aged, or it doesn’t taste “quite right.”

When I achieved my CPCU designation I received a certificate (suitable for framing) and a free trip for my wife and I to go to the national convention – held at Disney World in Orlando Florida. Of course, we took the kids along with us and had a grand time. (I have over 250 pictures to prove it!)

I had achieved my goal of getting the designation. I had “won the prize”. But I wasn’t a very gracious winner. I was often very abrupt to the people who told me I was “lucky.” I always wanted to correct these people – It wasn’t “luck”.

It was hours and hours of studying. Evenings spent reading about insurance contract analysis, studying insurance forms and reviewing case studies. I didn’t watch “the game”. I stayed up until eleven o’clock taking notes. Day after day, week after week, for several years I read and studied. I had to take ten rigorous essay exams on all aspects of the insurance industry before I achieved my goal. One day it was all over. I had passed the last examination.

If there was any luck involved it was directly related to the kind of luck Thomas Jefferson referred to when he said, “I’m a great believer in luck, I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

For what its worth, it wasn’t instantaneous, but it was worth it.