‎”Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”– Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison certainly wasn’t one to shy away from work. Another of his famous quotes was.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

People, no matter the period, have always dreamed of striking it rich; we want instant wealth with the least amount of work possible. That is what drives all the lotteries that currently rake in billions of dollars each year. That is what keeps all the casinos that are popping up in almost every State still growing. That is what keeps the scammers alive and prospering on the Internet. We just can’t seem to learn the lesson that if it looks too good to be true it probably is. We are a sucker for anything that would make us instantly rich.

Everyone wants to get rich without all the perspiration.  But as Edison so aptly put it in the above quotes opportunity and genius don’t just happen; they take work to accomplish. I know we see all the movies and TV shows that tell us that thirty year olds are at the head of most research labs, corporations, and such but that simply is not the reality.  It takes a lot of perspiration and hard work, sometime for many years, to accomplish most of what is worthwhile in this world. For the most part thirty year olds are just at the beginning of that process. You don’t become a genius without the work.

When the first personal computer came out it became a passion for me.  I spent hours and hours of my own time learning to program it. One weekend I remember the most is when I started working on an app Friday evening after I got off work and did not stop until Sunday afternoon. I spent about 42 hours non-stop with no sleep and not much more than chips to eat. I would call that passion. I went from there to getting a Macintosh computer for work and writing some programs that helped me do my job. Soon after that I was writing apps for my entire work team. When my new talent was discovered by my superiors I went on to managing a team of applications engineers for an entire engineering division. I plateaued at that point because those above me could not see a deaf man leading an entire IT department. Sad for me but it was mainly their loss.

Anything worth accomplishing is worth the effort to make it happen.