There is a chinese proverb that say:

No man who wakes up before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich

If you want to succeed – whether it be in sports, school, business or otherwise, you have to put in the time.   You have to work hard.  It seems that sometimes the Gen-Y shy away from the hardworking ethics of our forefathers.  Sometimes we think we’re going to worker smarter than the past generations and this works most of the time.  But you know what works all the time?  Work.

You’ve all heard of the 10,000 hour rule, which says, after 10,000 hours of practicing something, you are an expert.  The Juilliard grads, the Harvard business guys, Lebron, Nicklaus, you name it, they’ve put in their 10,000 hours.  These two principles go hand in hand.

When you wake up before dawn, you wake up without the rest of the world.  You don’t want to be the ‘rest of the world’, so why are you falling into their habits?  To set yourself apart, to be one of the best in the blogging world, to be one of the best at your job, to be the best on your chess team, you have to set yourself apart.

A great man told me his story of success.  He’s a baby boomer, has the mindset of one, and worked harder than just most of them.  He said:

“I got a job with SMUD – a power company in Sacramento out of college.  I went in 45 min or an hour early most of the time, I left 30 min late on most days.  And guess what.  A time or two, the President came in 30 min early, he saw me there.  A few times, the President left 20 min late, and I was there.  You know what happened?  The next time a better position popped up, he remembered me.  He remembered that I was working harder than the rest.  I got that promotion.  I got the better job.  I got the higher salary.”

He didn’t come in 3 hours early.  He didn’t have to stay till 11 PM at night.  (Of course, depending on your job, that might be the norm – I’m looking at you I-bankers and wall streeters)  Why do we do the exact same things as the rest of the world?  Follow these two proverbs – get up early, be productive.  If you’re working at becoming an expert at something, start putting in your 10,000 hours.  It will lead you to success.  I promise.