THE WHAT IF, GUITAR GUY BLOG

The Official Blog of Mike Rayburn

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If You Do Things Right, Things Should Go Right, Right? Wrong. Succeed Anyway.

After two cancelled flights, spending the night at O’hare, a delayed flight the next day, and arriving just one hour before my presentation for Nationwide Insurance, this is photo is what I found when I opened my guitar case.

For so many years it bothered me… if you do things right, things should go right, right? You reap what you sow, right? So I did my BEST! I was conscientious, honest, I treated people the way I wanted to be treated, did my homework, and go the extra mile.. And after years of trying you know what I found…

* Everything takes longer than it should.

* Nothing goes according to plan.

* People don’t do what they say they will.

* Everything is more expensive.

* You will lose money.

* The ones you love will hurt you.

* People will take advantage of you.

…etc, etc, etc
I kept believing there must be a formula, that if I could just do the right things, in the right ways, cover all my bases, I could somehow prevent these bad things. And to be sure, there are some exceptions, some things that go right. But honestly, you know what I found? Bad things still happen. They just do. It’s a fallen world.

So, years of trial and error I did find a solution, the only solution: Succeed anyway. Quit getting upset about it, realize there WILL be problems and succeed anyway.

When we accept that there are just going to be problems – that, as M. Scott Peck says, “Life is difficult,” – something amazing happens: We transcend it. Life is no longer difficult.

There is no formula to preclude the problems that happen in life, quit looking. The key to success is… succeed anyway. Certainly we want to expect the best in people, but realize things will often fall short. And then rise above by not letting problems turn to crises, nor crises turn into disasters.
Make the choice. Make it part of your personal constitution to succeed no matter what they throw at you, because they will. When your determination to succeed is stronger than the world’s attempts to hold you down, you will succeed. Guaranteed.

Please share this with someone who could use it!

Live Truly, Truly Live,

Mike

PS I taped the guitar together, performed the gig, McPherson Guitars actually fixed it (they are BRILLIANT!), and… United Airlines paid for it!