We live in a world of extreme speed and convenience. While I won’t argue that it’s not awesome, it has become the success seekers biggest enemy. You’re used to getting things now.

– Fast food
– Instant messaging
– The one week weight loss cleanse

And when you get your big idea, you’re conditioned to expect it to happen at the same speed. But it doesn’t. And you give up, and pack it in only to go back to your day job. This way of thinking is so far off, it is borderline scary.

People now see 30 as a crisis age. An age where you’ve either done it or your done. “Better settle down, buy a house and throw the dreams aside.” But history will show us that this is far from the case. The truth is, that through the convenience revolution we have experienced, while mostly everything has sped up substantially, success has remained as it always has been – a slow moving process.

This concept has never been more hard to grasp than now. And the secret to success, lies in it’s understanding.

Let’s look at Leonardo Davinci.

“A Genius”
“A Born Genius”, most would say.

But they would be wrong. Bare with me, just watch the video:

The Long Game Part 1: Why Leonardo DaVinci was no genius from Delve on Vimeo.

Incredible video. One of my favorites.

As you can see, the truth is, at age 30, Leonardo was a loser.

When we think of age 30 now, we think crisis. “If we haven’t done anything now, we never will.”

Imagine what Leonardo must have thought. Especially during a time where the average life span was nearly half of what it is now.

More successful people who were still losers at age 30

1) Michael Faraday
2) Harrison Ford
3) Ulysses S. Grant
4) Marcel Proust
5) Nikola Tesla

So what happens next?

Leonardo eventually reached great levels. But it was 16 years later.

What happened between those years from 30 to 46 when Leonardo first painted his masterpiece?

What took these other late bloomers from bankrupt and living at home to the genius’s we now know?

For that you’re going to have to watch part 2.

The Long Game Part 2: the missing chapter from Delve on Vimeo.

I wanted to share these video’s with a large audience because of how profound and powerful they are.

Just having this grasp of the long game can change your entire perception of success.

As Joel stated in my latest podcast episode with him,

“All you hear about is the glory, and never the story.”

This realization can allow you to get through the hard times and eventually achieve success.

But you’ve gotta ask yourself.
How bad do you want it?
Are you ready to play the long game?