One of my favorite lines from the Great Debtors…”the time is always right now”

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the words “I’ll do it when the time is right” or “I’m just waiting for such and such to fall into place.” What people often tend to forget is that life is incredibly short, and that the “perfect time” rarely comes around. More often than not, people spend their whole lives waiting for things to fall into place, and never end up doing the very things they have always aspired to do. This is why I believe that, rather than waiting for the perfect time to come around, it is up to us to create the perfect time—to realize that the time is right now.

I like to think of myself as a “just-in-time” strategist. That is to say that I always try to do things just in time—I don’t like to do things before the time is right, but I also don’t ever like to let an opportunity pass me by. To a large extent, we are the writers of our own stories, the shapers of our own destinies. If we want to accomplish something, it is up to us to make it happen—even if we are faced with difficulties and hardships that might seem insurmountable. The greatest success stories are not about people who have opportunities handed to them on a silver platter. Instead, they are about people who overcome long odds, grab opportunities as they arise, and even go so far as to make their own opportunities. These people don’t wait for things to fall into place—they move things around to shape their aspirations and dreams.

Obviously there are some limitations to this theory. After all, a five-year-old in the ghettos of Los Angeles is not going to build a spaceship and fly to the moon—at least not overnight. But with determination, passion, and drive, that young man just might work his way out of hardship, put himself through school, and find himself working for NASA, or rising to other astronomical heights. The point is that if he doesn’t start somewhere—regardless of whether or not it seems like the most opportune moment—he’ll never get anywhere. Those who do, succeed.