September 24, 2010. Artemas, Pa. Working.

Achievement seems to come from within each person. I call it the "Fire in The Belly" that causes a person to work hard to accomplish a task. Nancy at work once commented that she did not know where it came from, but anything she has ever tried to do either when employed or in her personal life, she had climbed the ladder of success, not perhaps to the top, but certainly where she was known by her peers as successful. Today I spoke with an agent who has had some very successful years as a real estate agent and some not so successful years. He seems to have all the talent and systems in place for whatever success he wishes, but it has not happened on a consistent manner. Today we were trying to try to figure it out.

I don't know the answer. It has to come from within himself. But I suspect that it comes from his attitude about work. One of my good friends is lazy at work. He has always wanted to do the bare minimum effort in order to run his office. He is certainly much smarter than me but his offices have never done as well, mainly he has two issues. He is cheap and he is lazy. One day at a meeting he asked me why I worked so hard. My answer surprised him. I told him that I work hard to keep myself from being bored and to keep helping the agents get better at their job so the office could grow. I also told him that over the past ten years I had had more fun in my office than he did in his, mainly because he was bored and I was not. He agreed but he still stayed lazy.

My son David was asked why he works so hard. His answer was "Is there any other way?" Working is complicated, all tied up with money and reputation and culture. But I have always felt that working hard is it's own reward.