You know, I love the 4th of July and what it stands for. I consider myself lucky to live in a country where we are free. I love that 233 years ago, our founding fathers declared our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The
pursuit of happiness, however, does not imply guaranteed success, only the freedom to succeed or fail based on our own merits.
All too often, when I am out somewhere, watching the T.V. or listening to the radio etc. I here people talking about how “so and so” got lucky and their company started making a ton of money, or they got a promotion, or paid off their house etc.
Really?? Did they get “lucky”, or is it more likely that they worked their butt off and “earned” that promotion, or saved up to pay off their house, or worked really hard and put blood, sweat and tears into building a good business? But when
someone loses their job, it’s the companies fault. When someone loses their house, it’s the banks fault. NO, it’s not! Why is it that we are “lucky” when we do something good, and “someone else is responsible” when we screw up??
The fact of the matter is, that we are all responsible for our own lives. The Declaration of Independence gives us all the freedom to succeed or fail based on our own merits, but when someone else succeeds where we fail, we don’t like it,
so we say they are lucky, and when someone screws up, everyone (including them) blames it on someone else because we all feel bad about the situation. What we need to do is understand that if we want to succeed, we have to work hard to get
there, and we shouldn’t take away someone else’s acheivement by saying they are lucky. If we fail, we need to work hard not to do it again, and not blame everyone BUT ourselves if it happens.
Happy Independence Day everyone. Make sure that this year you give people praise for their accomplishments, accept praise for your accomplishments, don’t blame anyone else for your screw ups and don’t let other people blame someone
else when they tell you their “bad luck” story. This Saturday, celebrate the fact that you have the right to succeed as much, or as little, as you want to!
