As I was contemplating what to write to commence our inaugural blog entry, I was thinking about how winning people become successful. It seems that there must be some great strategic planning on the part of those who make it in life and those who either wind up living out a very average existence or one that is much less than that.

What are the guidelines to the good life? Are there principles for success that we can all learn from? Is there a way for the young to get a jump, an edge on the road to the living the good life?

Then I reminisced about past friends, all very intelligent and capable, yet some became successful and others seemed to end up nowhere. Nowhere is the holding place for life’s disappointments; broken dreams, failed marriages, troubled kids, unsatisfying jobs, a discontented and unfulfilled life.

So what is the difference between the fulfilled and the unfulfilled; the winners and the losers; the victorious and the defeated; the happy and the sad; the powerful and the crushed; the champion and the beaten. Why do some succeed while others fail? What are the secrets of the successful? Do they do something different? Have they experienced greater opportunity? Did they receive all of the breaks in life? What put them on the fast track to success, while others with similar background, education, experiences have ended up on the fast track to life’s failures?

It seems there are very little differences between the two. In fact, the differences seem to be so minute that one would hardly notice them even while staying regularly in touch with two people, each following a different track; one to success and one to failure.

I am going to step out there just a bit to say that the difference between success and failure usually comes down to small, seemingly insignificant choices. The choices are not some grandiose, huge decision-making opportunities between major alternatives. Not at all. These choices are small choices that come to us daily. Choices that involve how we spend our time, where we spend our money, how efficient we are with the minutes, hours, days and weeks; all which add up to significant chunks of our life.

Small variations lead to vastly different futures. Little changes create enormously dissimilar results. Minor adjustments lead to major differences. It is all about little choices.

Content © Rich Brott, 2011

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