Do you take risks?

I’m a huge fan of the UFC.  If you don’t know what it is, look it up.  It’s as close to a real fight as you can get legally.  Right now their greatest and most revered champion, Anderson Silva, is getting a lot of crap from UFC fans.

There are two basic fighters that step into the cage, an eight-sided fenced in platform where the fights are held.  One type of fighter comes in to win.  Another type comes in not to lose.

Silva was on a huge winning streak, winning eight straight fights.  Less than a handful of people have ever accomplished that in the UFC.  His last fight that was held a couple of weeks ago would have marked his ninth, breaking the record.

He stepped into the cage to defend his title.  Without going into details, both he and the challenger fought not to lose, which made for a boring fight.  The president of the UFC even apologized.

When going for your dreams, taking risks is necessary.  That’s the hard part.

I spent more than three years writing my book.  I went in to win.  I didn’t think about winning when writing the book.  But my intention was to get published.

Is there a limit to the risk?

Justin Lin is known for directing movies such as THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, ANNAPOLIS, and FAST AND FURIOUS to name a few.  I first knew of him when he directed BETTER LUCK TOMORROW.  He’d spent about $100,000 on the movie by maxing out eight to ten credit cards.

That’s going in to win.

MTV ended up buying the movie, recouping Lin’s cost.  But the win came when we got to direct James Franco, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordana Brewster, Roger Foo and Tyrese Gibson in ANNAPOLIS.  His risk brought him his dream of filmmaking.

Is there a limit to risk?

I think the risk should be somewhat related to the goal.  If I’m writing my fantasy, risking my life shouldn’t be part of it.  What I’m risking is my ego, three years of my life and my dream.  The win in my mind is awesome.  If I’m a fighter, then my life is at risk.  The aims are different, which brings in different sets of risks.

Ultimately, the limits are personal.

I’ve been watching UFC since it first came out in the early 90’s.  And I was disappointed with Silva’s performance, even though he won.  He definitely came in to the fight not to lose.  And the fans are speaking out.

I got a lot of comments from different sources regarding my post Throw Out Your Goals.  There were a few misconceptions that I want to cover.  First let me list some of them:

• Goals are important to accomplish what we want
• Brad Pitt has good genes and is lucky
• Success is defined differently for different people
• Just because you love something doesn’t mean you’ll be good at it
• Not every one can do what they love and get paid for it

There were plenty more.

Let’s start with defining success.  My first post never defined success.  It defined certain people’s level of success but never went as far as gave it a definition.  In this post, I will remain ambiguous on the definition of success.  Because who ever commented and said success is different for different people is correct.  I know a man who thinks he’s successful because he’s raised healthy, intelligent children.  I know fighters who’ve beaten great opponents who believe their own performances were below par.  Hell…Donald Trump hates being a multi-millionaire, and only considers himself a success when he has multi-billions.

Success is much like a goal.  Once you reach it, your work, the process to attain it, doesn’t stop.  If a fighter won her first fight, she doesn’t stop training.  She continues to train for the next fight.  If she’s won the world belt in her weight class, then she still has to continue to sharpen her skills for her first title defense.  What happens when she defends it successfully?  Celebrates?  For sure!  Beware.  There are others who are hungry for her belt.  Back to the process.  What if she loses?  Back to the process.

I love this one.  Brad Pitt has good genes and is lucky.  I’m not denying his good genes and looks.  What I do deny is his luck.  To say he was lucky is to deny the hard work he’d committed, wearing a chicken suit, working odd jobs, before he got his first major role.  Look at Steve Carrell.  He was an unknown comic for twenty years until luck struck him.  Luck?  No.  Hard work and perseverance?  Most definitely.  

And good looks was never a prerequisite for success in Hollywood.  With over a million good looking people in Los Angeles, it doesn’t explain Jack Black.  Now, some find him hot.  But he’s doesn’t fit the traditional leading man look.

This next one is good.  You can’t make a living doing what you love is a lot of people’s excuse to settle for mundane jobs.  I’m not saying quit your day job, lose your house, die of starvation.  Keep your day job, but work on what you love during your free time.  John Grisham is a great example.  He was a lawyer for ten years before he wrote his first novel.  He got to the office two hours before he started his real job, wrote, then started on his case list.  The awesome thing is he published his first book.

If you don’t think you can make a living doing what you love, then you won’t.  Simple as that.

Think you’d suck being a parent?   You will.

Believe you can run a marathon?  Follow up with action, and you will.

Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.  Henry Ford said that.  He wanted to create a V-8 engine.  He surrounded himself with brilliant engineers. You know what they said?  Can’t be done.  Ford pushed them forward, told them it was possible.  Through several failures, it was done.  Look it up.  True story.

The last one I want to tackle is:  just because you love it doesn’t mean you can be good at it.  Crap.  In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers:  The Story of Success, he talks about mastery of skill.  He’d found one commonality among all world class musicians, artists, athletes, etc.  What is it?  Ten thousand hours of practice.  You want to be a world class anything?  Here it is, ten thousand hours of work.  That’s why you gotta love the process, not the goal.  Love the process, the goal will come many times over.