I hear people talk about how they want to succeed, especially in the different networking groups I attend. I am always reminded of the story of the motivational speaker who, after a presentation, had one of the young men in the audience approach him and say, “I want to be successful like you.” The young man went on to talk about how the motivational speaker has books, fame and money and he would give up whatever he needed to have the success that the speaker has.

So the speaker told the young man if he wanted to have the success he enjoyed that he needed to meet him at the pool for a pool workout the next morning.  So the next morning the young man shows up at 5:30 to find the world renowned speaker already in the pool and not seeming to be affected by the cool temperature in or out of the water.  The speaker tells the young man to join him in the pool and as soon as the young man jumped in the pool the speaker grabbed him and began to dunk the young guy in the water, once, twice and then on the third one he held the young man’s head under water for what seemed like an eternity and right when the young man thought he would pass out the world renown speaker who just 24 hours ago was the picture of calm and professionalism was now on the brink of murder brought him up looked him in his eye and said, “When you want success as bad as you wanted to breathe just now, that is when you will have my level of success.”