The World of Grandpa Don

No Shortcuts

"They" tell us:

• Take a few drops of this or a couple of these pills and your performance will improve dramatically!

• Take this or eat only these foods and you will loose weight immediately! 

• Send ten dollars and I will send you instructions on how to become a millionaire in one year!

• you don't have time to study this material but you can cram for the test and get through the course. 

• The email from Nairobi that says you can keep 25% of the money if they can transfer ten million dollars into your bank account.

• The list goes on ... ... and on ...

All are shortcuts to success!

Well, the performance improvement will be temporary at best and may even be damaging. The weight will return. The only one to become a millionaire is the guy who got my ten dollars. We will not be able to make up for knowledge lost. And, What little is in my bank account will be gone as soon as I send them the account number.

The reason that the well worn road is there is that it works! It will always get us to our goal. It has been tried tested and used by those who went before us. The shortcuts would be well worn paths if they really worked. But, there are brambles, pitfalls, and steep hills on the shortcuts.

It was P. T. Barnum who said that "there is a sucker born every minute". Someone who will make the huckster rich by buying his snake oil. The hucksters are still out there and they are multiplying. They thrive on  greed or desire for instant gratification. They won't tell about the side effects of their product because that would cut into sales and enormous profits. 

"If it sounds too good to be true, ... it is". We should not seek instant gratification but should seek the long term goals and invest the effort necessary to attain them. But, ... also be careful of the goals. God has given us gifts and talents. We must discover these talents, ... develop them, ... use them and most importantly, ... share them. Everyone is different because no one can do everything. With everyone sharing their God given talents, we could have a perfect world. That is something for which we should strive.

Let us pick a noble goal, that of making this a better world. In working for that, the honors and riches will come. They are the side effects of a noble cause. However, short cuts, being based on instant gratification, are not noble and are counterproductive.

There are no short cuts to achievement and success. There are no shortcuts to Nobility. And, ... anything less than Nobility is failure!

Grandpa Don
01/17/2002