The greatest hurdle of wealth––the point at which most people throw in the towel and turn back––occurs in the middle of the journey. Success is little steps in mundane days.
A young man once had a peculiar dream to walk across America. Nobody quite understood his strange longing. Walk from the Atlantic to the Pacific? Are you serious? It was an unrealistic dream. And completing the task was deemed impossible by friends.
One day without notice, however, he set out on foot with only a backpack and a walking stick. This man strolled on sidewalks until he reached the outskirts of town. He camped for the night, awoke the next morning, and set out walking again.
Along the way, he stayed in towns and engaged in work to support his existence. At each stop, he saved a few bucks and moved on. It was a fun adventure for a while.
But the luster of adventure eventually gave way to the mundane boredom of an immense chore with no end in sight. He walked with little progress. He plodded along in rain. He trudged in blaring sun and heat. He suffered with blistered feet. He had good days and bad days. He grew tired of camping every night. And he was alone in his thoughts.
Days turned into months, and months into years. . .
Finally the man reached the Pacific coast and sat with his feet in the salt water. A newspaper reporter interviewed him and asked, “How did you do it?”
Of course, the reporter expected a profound answer, a kernel of wisdom about how to transcend the suffering behind an endless and rare achievement. What was the secret?
“I suffered some days,” the man admitted simply. “And I enjoyed some days. Most of the time, I just focused on moving forward. I figured if I stayed in motion, and my feet were moving, and I was heading in the right direction, then time was on my side.”
“But how did you persevere for years?”
“I didn’t decide to do it for years. I didn’t even think about the distance. I just kept moving in the right direction each day,” he shrugged. “and the finish line came to me.”
“It is by attempting to reach the top at a single leap that so much misery is produced in the world.” -William Cobbett.
