The Secret to Success

A long time ago on an island far, far away, a series of very fortunate events resulted in me pet sitting for the summer in a tiny apartment on the Big Island. As the string of fortunate events continued, one night I found myself at a lavish party at an extraordinarily expensive house overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Keep in mind that at the time, I was just an 18 year old kid from Maryland, dead broke and way out of my element. I stood there a little overwhelmed on the deck of this multimillion dollar house gazing past the pool and the koi ponds mesmerized by the rainbow out over the Pacific Ocean. A couple of big Hawaiian guys were playing Bob Dylan tunes on their ukuleles behind me.

Suddenly, I was approached by what turned out to be the owner of the house and the host of the party. After introductions and small talk, he posed the question, “Do you think I am successful?”

Under most circumstances, a question with such an obvious answer would demand some sort of smart ass comment, but at the time I was still too stunned to generate one. So I took another look at the house, the pool, the koi, the happy friends and family that surrounded him, the great party and the grin on his face and I admitted, “Yes. I think you are successful.”

A couple moments of silence passed after my response and then he followed up with another question, “Do you want to know the secret to success?”

This time my answer came quicker, “Sure.”

“There are two secrets to remember in order to be successful,” he began. “Number one is: Don’t sweat the small things.”

I thought about that for a minute and saw that it made sense. It didn’t seem to be an earth shattering discovery and I found myself wondering what this second secret was. I looked expectantly at the man and finally when it didn’t seem that he would ever reveal the final secret, I asked, “Okay, so what’s the second secret?”

He took a slow draw from his glass of single malt, looked me in the eye and finally said, “Don’t sweat the big things either.”