SUCCEEDING VIA THE SMALL BALL

You know how to play small ball. So you do it. Quiet success is yours.

You can't control much when you're living in a hurry, and your schemes have always reflected it. When other people were dating, you were lighting fireworks with your best friend down the street. When you were dating, everyone else was getting engaged. When everyone else was getting married and you were yet to get engaged, it was more of the same. When you got married, everyone else was busy winning the kid race. They'll be grandparents, and you'll still have kids at home.

Maybe you'll die first. That's a possibility.

Your newest car is 15 years old. The next newest is 24, and you still find yourself thinking that's a damn nice car after a good rain. The purchase price of your house was less than most used cars, and for what? Because you couldn't get a loan? No, you could have had a loan, but you didn't want your house to own you for 30 years. So, just like you've done with everything else, you decided to small ball it. You were offered the illusion of a grand slam, and you put down a really solid bunt.

It's a concept that works, but it takes a combination of discipline, arrogance, patience, and self depreciation. Or one big-ass chip on your shoulder. After all, when things move slower, the success is quieter—especially in your own eyes. But quiet success is still success, and that has to be kept in mind when you're surrounded by people who have beautiful new houses, new cars, and perfect-looking families.

This is the path you've chosen. You've chosen it for a reason, even if you lose sight of that reason on a daily basis. What is that reason? It has something to do with your soul, doesn't it? Something to do with how a king may move a man, but the soul belongs to the man. Fast success often leads to desperation, and desperation often leads to the compromises and deals that feed on themselves until you find yourself dealing with the devil himself. As you'll almost certainly find yourself in that position at times in your life anyway, the conviction you show in staying true to yourself and your decision to succeed quietly is one of the best things you can do for your soul.