Final answer to success in life is in your actions

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And your final answer is?|ret||ret||tab|

If that sounds familiar, you are part of the masses being sucked into their television screens, panting for the viewing high of the new millennium "You, too, can become a millionaire." |ret||ret||tab|

Horse feathers!|ret||ret||tab|

It is the oldest trick in the book. All you have to do is shove average people in a soundproof booth, ask below-average questions like, "What color are houses in Monopoly?" (yes, I know they are green), and then drop, right in front of the camera lens, bundles of fresh cash wrapped in rubber bands into the appropriately monogrammed bag and you have got a Nielsen blockbuster.|ret||ret||tab|

Let's be honest, it is hard to get a leg up on this Pavlovian primer in greed. And I have salivated along with you. That is, until I realized "So You Want To Be A Millionaire," "21" and "Greed" are the tip of the apathy iceberg in this society. |ret||ret||tab|

If you have noticed that fewer people seem to be interested in offering excellence at work, creativity at home or commitment to each other duh, just look at the quiz shows. |ret||ret||tab|

Woven through the rays of focused strobe lights and knockoff music is the message: Someday you can win it all, with little or no effort. These glitzy steel and glass television hampers for the helpless project the pathetic hope that someone will rescue a very small chosen few of us. Here is the Calvinistic (no, no relation) predestination for the economically lost.|ret||ret||tab|

Every time those rubber-band bound bundles are dropped into the chosen one's bag, we take heart. Miracles, we assume, still do happen for those gifted enough to know the year Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency. That fact, believe it or not, was worth $100,000.|ret||ret||tab|

My premise is that these quiz shows belie a rampant dependency among us. It is the "magic mother" syndrome. We cross our fingers and toes and wish upon a star that some beneficent power will kiss us and make us the cash-rich prince or princess we know we really are down deep inside. The winners on these shows provide intermittent reinforcement that our lucky number will soon come up.|ret||ret||tab|

Don't misunderstand. I like surprises and windfalls. What I object to are people, especially in business, who feel no obligation to take responsibility for themselves because they believe their frogdom will soon dissipate with the right kiss.|ret||ret||tab|

Well, kiss this it is called reality.|ret||ret||tab|

The reality of life is soundproof booths are few and very far between. Some of us are salivating our way right into our graves. It is always the "what if" and "my day is coming" or "if I could just hit the Lotto, my life would be worth living."|ret||ret||tab|

Sam Walton was recorded saying the following: "Somehow over the years folks have gotten the impression that Wal-Mart was something that I dreamed up out of the blue as a middle-aged man, and that it was just this great idea that turned into an overnight success. And like most over-night successes, it was about 20 years in the making."|ret||ret||tab|

If Sam Walton had waited to win the Missouri Lottery, strike gold on the Buffalo River or be selected to share the stage with Regis, I would have to go somewhere else to get a lube, liver and Legos all at the same time.|ret||ret||tab|

There just are not enough days on anyone's calendar to wait for something to "happen" in our lives. The "happen" is our business.|ret||ret||tab|

James McMurtry wrote a song that captures my concern. It is titled, "Painting By The Numbers" from his album, "Too Long in the Wasteland." The words are, "You're painting by the number, connecting the dots, you work from the neck down, you don't call the shots. You jump when they say jump, you don't ask how high, 'cause painting by the numbers, you know you'll get by."|ret||ret||tab|

"Getting by" is the only option while waiting to get on a quiz show, win a lottery, or get kissed by the right princess. Waiting for a miracle is a terrible waste of time when the miracle-worker is the one doing the waiting.|ret||ret||tab|

"And your final answer is ... ?" |ret||ret||tab|

My final answer is get up, get a life, go to work and make your own miracles.|ret||ret||tab|

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted at the Business Journal by writing to PO Box 1365, Springfield 65801, or by e-mail at sbj@sbj.net.)[[In-content Ad]]