Want Luck? Work Hard.

Hey team! So here we are, another Monday Message. I wanted to share with you a quote from Thomas Jefferson. He was the third president of the United States, wrote the Declaration of Independence. He said, “I believe in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more lucky I am.” I love that quote, and I agree with it. Everything that you want in life is at your fingertips if you’re just willing to work hard enough for it. If you’re willing to drive forward. If you’re willing to not quit when times get tough, and be valuable because nothing less will do. Find out how to be a person of value.

I believe it was Einstein who said, “Don’t seek out success but seek out to be valuable.” How to make other people realize that you’re a person of value. Work hard and drive forward. It’s why our core values matter so much. It’s why I talk every Monday about some of these things — what we do matters and how we do it matters.

So, if you want to be lucky and work a little bit harder, I started working when I was nine years old, went out and got a paper route. I found myself in the midst of some pretty gnarly rain and snowstorms in the morning. I remember getting up every morning at 5 o’clock, and sometimes earlier, to roll papers. Sometimes the papers didn’t come because it was such a horrible snowstorm that the papers couldn’t get delivered to me in a timely manner. So, I’d go to school and then come home, roll the papers, go do the papers in the afternoon, and then go back and spend time doing my homework and other chores, like cleaning up after the dog and things like that.

It is those work ethic types of things and that has brought me the luck I had because I was the only 9 or 10 year-old that had 40, 50, 60, 80 bucks in his bank account. And, as long as my parents had let me, I could go buy some candy. As long as my parents let me, I could take a girl out to a movie. You’re thinking, “What kind of nine-year-old has a girlfriend?” Man, I asked the first girl to marry me when I was in first grade. I was only six. So, because I’m a romantic down deep at heart, that’s just me. Ask Karen.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a little lively humor but at the same time, Thomas Jefferson’s quote. You want to be lucky, work hard. You find that yourself is a lot luckier when you’re working really hard. God bless you guys, be valuable because nothing less will do. I’ll see you next week. I’m hoping that you are enjoying the holidays. God bless. Bye, see you.