How to Wiggle Out of the Mud! - 9

Eliminate the Twin Killers of Success Part 2

Many worthy goals, promising relationships, and terrific business ideas are ruined by the Twin Killers of Success: Speed and Greed.

Let's start with what greed is not. Greed is not the admirable desire to have things better tomorrow than you do today. If you want a better education, a better job, greater wealth, or a nicer home and you are willing to earn them with integrity and self-discipline then it's not greed, it is personal growth. That kind of individual or family development is commended in every society.

Greed, on the other hand, is the selfish desire to acquire wealth, possession, or authority at the expense of someone else. For instance, a man who buys a new set of golf clubs when his children need shoes is greedy. Someone who lies about a fellow-worker to get a promotion is greedy. A corporation that puts profits above customer safety is greedy.

Perhaps the best example of greed in our modern society is the convicted former CEO of the Enron Corporation, the late Kenneth Lay. He was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges in one of America's biggest corporate scandals, yet he maintained his innocence until he died. After his guilty verdict he continued to protest his innocence even though the evidence presented during his trial exposed a man of wretched material excess that included $100,000 million in personal debt. Lay defended his outrageous lifestyle by saying "It was difficult to turn off that lifestyle like a spigot."

Now please don't click your tongue and give me some self-righteous outrage about the "evil rich." You don't have to be the CEO of a major corporation to suffer from the offense. You can be the poorest of the poor and be as greedy, gluttonous, and insatiable as a wealthy CEO. Someone who demands others pay their way while they do nothing to earn a living is as greedy as a plumber who overcharges a client.

A survey by the Retail Federation revealed an increase in shoplifting and employee theft. Some $32 billion worth of goods are stolen from retail outlets each year. I don't think it's the Corporate Big-Boys who are stealing nine-dollar tee shirts from Wal-Mart, do you?

Psychologist Eric Fromm warned, "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." Greed is a universal human problem. That's why the Catholic Church lists greed as one of the seven deadly sins.

Most of us don't consider ourselves greedy, but don't you agree that it is often difficult to make a distinction between need and greed? Look carefully at your personal motives for the accumulation of more stuff and the reaching for more power. Unchecked greed causes us to fall into our own "bottomless pit" and we never "reach satisfaction".

Do not let either speed or greed, the twin killers of success, keep you stuck in the mud.

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How to Wiggle Out of the Mud! - 8

Eliminate the Twin Killers of Success Part 1

Many worthy goals, promising relationships, and terrific business ideas are ruined by the Twin Killers of Success: speed and greed.

A cute little girl in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" wanted a golden goose and she did not want to wait for it. She danced with gusto and sang with furor, "I want it now!" Her song and attitude represents the thoughts and feelings of many people in our world today.

Speed is a big deal with most people. You wake up in the morning on the run. You watch sound-bite news while you eat your one-minute oatmeal, you check your E-mail with your high-speed Internet, you eat lunch at a fast food restaurant, you impulsively and relentlessly check your phone at any opportunity no matter how intrusive it may be. And you never stop, not even at home, not even in bed where you watch TV while you read a book, talk to your kids, and wonder about tomorrow's schedule, all at the same time.

This high-speed lifestyle can be a problem because when a real personal crisis hits you - you want it solved NOW and it can't be. Real solutions to serious problems take time and you don't have any. You want everything NOW; not in ten minutes, not tomorrow, not next week, and for sure not next year.

You can't wait that long. You have goals to reach, people to talk to, events to attend, mates to love, children to look after, parents to call, lawns to mow, meetings to go to, volunteer work to be done, and on and on and on.

I'm asking you to pause a moment and ask yourself this question: What does all this impatient high-speed living bring? Here are some likely answers: harsh words, high blood pressure, quarrels, sleeplessness, fear, and far too often, the suspension of logic.

Someone said, "Impatience cuts down a tree to reach the fruit." Ever done that?

The consequences of impatience are anxiety, fear, discouragement, and ultimately failure. Over 400 years before Christ was born Herodotus said, "Haste in every business brings failures."

Great things, on the other hand, take time. Important ventures, worthy goals, great achievements require toil, endurance, and courage. They must pass through many phases, transverse dark valleys, suffer serious setbacks, require renewed imagination, and call forth boldness.

If you are determined to wiggle out of your mud, if you are focused on a worthy goal and you do your utmost, and if you allow for the required time, you will certainly do it. So start now, but slow down. It is far better to walk to the cadence of the universe than run to the rhythm of rush hour. Important things take time.

Endnote: I can think of only two times when haste is good: when swatting flies and forgiving wrongs.

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