I was asked the silliest question recently. What made it silly was that I think it was an “honest question” – the person REALLY wanted to know (and I have a feeling that he still doesn’t believe my answer).

By the way, he happens to be a reader of this blog, probably reading right now – so this is dedicated to you.

Here’s the context:

I work a lot. I work hard. I work crazy hours. I love every minute of it.

I have big goals in life. I want to achieve the unachievable. I want to leave everyone scratching their heads thinking: “what the hell is he doing? how is he doing it?”

To do this, I know I have to work my tail off. Period. There is no such thing as “being lucky” – you create your own luck. So, this is why I work so hard (it helps to love what I do).

Now, here’s what prompted the question:

We recently pulled off one of the largest product launches in our industry’s history and it was amazing, exhilarating – everything I dreamed it would be.

At the same time, it required LOTS of work. Hours and hours of no sleep, stress, arguments, etc… This is nothing new to me, I’ve been doing it for five years and my “hard work investment” has always paid off (so why stop now?).

Well, the person who asked me this question has been seeing me online (on Gtalk) for hours and hours and has been receiving countless e-mails from me as I manage the launch.

I guess after a while he just started to wonder: “How is this possible? How is he working so many hours yet still walking around alive, with left-over energy at the end of it all?”

I guess what concerns me  is that the best conclusion he could reach for was that “I’m on illegal drugs.” At first it was funny, now I wonder if he’s serious…guess he doesn’t think much of me if he is

More background:

I have a condition called Crohn’s Disease. It’s raked havoc on my life and almost killed me multiple times. As hard as it has been on me, it’s made me who I am today – so I guess it’s a blessing in disguise (still hard to accept).

It’s made me resilient, persistent and it’s helped me appreciate life for what it is NOW.

Now, because of the aggressive form of the disease, I have to take a lot of medication, some of which is very expensive and even a bit risky if used long-term (but I have no choice).

Well…when I responded that “No, I do not take illegal drugs.” The conclusion reached was that perhaps my medication has some substances in it that give me an unfair advantage in the world.

I know…crazy right?

I wanted to post about this because I thought it was funny.

Here is some advice everyone:

Let’s not look TOO deep for answers as to how one becomes successful. It’s hard work – that’s it. You create your own luck. Look for opportunities, keep an open mind and don’t be too fast to judge that which you do not understand.

So…Finally the “Scientific Explanation” of why I can stay up for up to 58 Hours & perform at peak the entire time?

I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve practiced.

I love what I do and I don’t know any other way. When something needs to get done, I get it done.

I don’t sit there and feel sorry for myself or stress about how much work is needed to get done – I just do it.

So, in the words of our friends at Nike, “Just Do It!”

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Tags: drugs, hard work, no excuses

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Fighter Mentality, leadership, Meeting Your Goals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.