Success in Life

If success is defined by how much money you have, I don't know much about success. If you define it more as substance of character, I'm doing alright. One might think the latter would lead to the former; good character will lead to financial success. The book of Job in the Bible debunks that myth. Job had it all. One day Satan came to God and God said, so what do you think of my servant Job? Satan said, he's a great guy, but you've protected him and given him a life of ease, take that away and he will curse you to your face. God said, ok, go for it, but don't harm him physically.

I'm sure Satan smiled and went on his way, ready to wreak havoc and have fun doing it. You know the type. So Satan puts some things in motion and everything Job owns is stolen and his grown children are killed. Job mourns. His friends come along and tell him to repent from whatever it is that he's done wrong and God will restore his fortune.

Ok, right here is where many people make the mistake of listening to the "experts." Go look up traits or habits of successful people and you will find plenty of advice.

Job says to them, I've done nothing wrong, God can do with me as he wants, who am I to say what God can do. God gives and God takes away, in both I will honor God.

This made his friends angry. How dare this guy who is obviously being punished by God talk back to them, the favored of God. They tell him so and still Job sticks to what he said. Even Jobs wife (notice Satan never threatens to take the wife) says, "Curse God and die."

Satan checks in with God. God says, so what do you think now? Ok, take away his health and he will curse you to your face. Go for it, God says.

Boils break out on Jobs skin. His friends, the "experts" come along and now feel vindicated. Didn't they say he should repent? Obviously this is God's punishment for not listening to them and not repenting from the evil he has done, whatever it was.

Jobs says the same thing. I've done nothing wrong. God gives and God takes away, I'll honor him in both. Oh the self-righteous indignation, they cover their ears and howl to drown out Jobs pitiful excuses.

Satan checks in with God. God says, satisfied now? Satan leaves in a huff. Now God says to Job, tell your friends to quit giving you advice or I'll do to them what I've done to you, and you are right, I can do what I want with my creation. God never tells Job why. The one thing Job did was ask why, he was never told. So his friends saw the error of their way and God restored Jobs wealth to even greater wealth and he had seven sons, and three daughters, which were known as the most beautiful women in the land. I don't remember if the story relates anything about Job's wife after all this. I wonder if she died and he remarried, since he had grown children, wouldn't his wife have been beyond child bearing years to produce seven sons and three daughters after all this? I don't know.

How this relates to success nowadays. The "experts" aren't always right and can be dead wrong. I've learned not to listen to advice. I'm the one with the ideas, not them. I know what I can do, not them. I'm the creative one, not them.

Ignore the people that tell you that you can't do it. There are some people that just can't stand the thought of you being successful, they aren't, so you shouldn't be either. Are you the type of person that makes decisions regardless of the outcome? Job could have went along with his friends advice to get back in their good grace and may have profited from it. He wouldn't.

If success is merely money, criminals that don't get caught are successful. That's not my idea of success. I would call that a dismal failure of a person. If they could actually get away with stealing a fortune, they are smart enough to have earned one.

Good character is not always recognized for what it is. Job's was not, not for awhile anyway, and we don't know how long he suffered under false accusations. Imagine the rumors and the derision he must have put up with. The book of Micah sums up success; To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Money is not success. Job was successful while broke and sick.

If you want to be successful at what you do; work at it. I have put years into sculpture and having nothing to show for it except a bunch of nice sculptures sitting on shelves. But the work has led to me to being a better sculptor. Regardless of the outcome, I keep working at it. You have to produce. My work has led me to sculpting marble. Now I have to work at producing marble sculpture, which has led me to find a marble deposit while looking for marble suppliers. Now I may become a supplier myself. You never know where knowledge will take you, learn everything that interests you or is related to what you do, however remotely related, you never know where it will lead. 

Looking back on my life, little successes have taught me what I can do. That's why I don't listen to people that tell me I can't. I know better, I've done it before. But if you never try, if you never take an idea that people may, and probably will ridicule, you'll never know, and you'll never know what you're made of. I've had people ridicule ideas while they worked. Don't listen to people that tell you that you can't. They will even tell you that you can't while you are successfully doing it. 

Hopefully some things to think on. 

Being Positive

Katy Perry is having a contest to win a private concert by her. A high school on Abilene, Texas has made a two minute video using "Roar" as inspiration. The video is inspiring. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqdDNKRfVtI 

 I came across it while trying to watch a video about a local one-legged foot ball player. (American football) That video wouldn't play so I played the contest video because the caption was about being positive and that is a subject that usually pisses me off. I will relate this to art, just wait.

This video is actually positive, I love it. It shows a problem and how to fix it. That's positive. My problem with "positive" people is they usually aren't positive, they just say they are, they act positive, but they are hard to be around. Real positive people do stuff. They work out the problems, or see the problems and forge ahead anyway. Fake positive people complain about people that see problems. Fake positive people will keep happily doing the same wrong thing over and over because they are happy and positive. You know the type?

In the video the popular, look-down-on-everybody-else-people, are the fake positive people, always happy, always happily, continually doing the wrong thing. (not all popular people are like that) Some people make such a habit of being popular that all they know is; put on a happy face and be positive!  Their lives are very narrow; who can I impress and where do I have to be next? They live by their schedule and question nothing. Socrates complained about these people also. Thinking takes effort, and thinking that only being "positive" is the answer is a narrow minded view.

You can come to a problem and be happy about it, and solve it happily. That's great. But you have to recognize it first, and "positive" people have taught themselves that recognizing problems is negative. When I hit a problem, and that's what it feels like to me, I slam into it and it surprises me and I let out a cuss word, or a few, or even a string of them. Now I'm all worked up and my brain is burning to solve the problem, and I do. That's positive too.

The art part, I told ya, here it is: Unless you're one of those super talented people who just whips out fantastic art, you're going to have problems with your art. I had one today. I wanted to remove a lot of stone quickly because this sculpture is taking too long. I thought about driving to town to look for some carbide or diamond tools. Part of the problem is when I get on an idea I stick with it till it works or I prove it won't. So going to town could be a waste of time, but I don't know, but I figure any time I save with better tools will be offset by the time spent running around. I decide to stay and work with what I've got.

I've had bigger problems, like the first sculpture I did was terrible, but I figured I could do better, and I have. However I didn't just get better by being happy. Plenty of times I was pissed. The ideal picture of an artist calmly working . . . that's not me. Maybe most of the time, but not all the time. I had to do research on different types of clay, tools, how they are used. This isn't the type of thing a fake positive person will do.

Managers are often promoted because they are fake positive. They are always happy, but they can't even recognize a problem, they are just yes men. This is a big problem where I work. I come to managers with problems and solutions and I always hear; You're right, but there's nothing we can do about it. These people are so bad at solving problems they can't even implement a solution when its given to them. That is not positive.

Facebook is a very depressing place, some study shows, I read somewhere. The reason is people post positive things making it look like their lives are perfect and it depresses people who don't have "perfect" lives. That's fake positive. Everyone has problems. Positive people just solve them, whether they are happy while doing it or not. So next time you're articulating a problem to work out the solution and someone says you're being negative, solve the problem and tell them; "that's being positive." And then ask them, "How is telling me I'm negative a positive thing?" They will shut up, they don't know how to figure out answers.

"Be positive" is such a common phrase. What needs to be common is "Work out the problem." That's much harder and will never be popular. But it's what gets things done.