Week 5 Journal Entry

In this weeks readings I learned a lot about skill, luck, and hard work when trying to be successful. Each of these play different roles in business and especially entrepreneurship. Some play a bigger role than others, but they all still amount to the final product of an entrepreneur and his company. Hard work definitely trumps the other two, followed by skill, and then luck. You could be the most skilled entrepreneur or businessman out there, but somebody that works harder than you could easily pass you up and become more successful. We watched a video in class about a man that sought to be successful, so he found a man to mentor him and teach him how to do just that. They both met up at the beach and the man made him walk out waist deep into the ocean. Once they reached that point, the man dunked him under the water and held him under until he was on the brink of passing out. Once he came out of the water grasping for air, the man asked him how he felt when he was underwater. He said that he wanted to breathe more than anything. The man proceeded to say that he needed to be just as desperate for success as he was for air in those moments he was underwater. It forever changed his perspective. I want to have that deep and abiding motivation to be successful in my career and in life.