Persistence
Today is of course July 4th, Independence Day here in the U.S.A.. But here in Vermont there is also some attention payed to the birthday of one of its native sons, Calvin Coolidge.
Not my favorite president, or even a very great president by any measure, he did produce a quote that I live by. I actually have it framed on my desk at home. It is true in magic, and in business, and in pretty much every area of life.
I will take a person willing to take action and be persistent over a talented, well educated, genius any day of the week. Like Coolidge I know my fair share of people with , amazing genius or advanced degrees that do nothing but gripe about how the world does not recognize or reward them.
Every day that I wake up and feel lazy, or pissed off that the world has not just recognized my genius with an inexhaustible grant of discretionary funds, I look at that quote and get down to business.