14. The Law of Preparation
Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation.
The mark of the serious person, or the real professional, in any field is that he takes far more time to prepare than the average. The nonserious person, or the nonprofessional, always attempts to bluff or to “wing it.” He tries to get by with a minimum of preparation. He doesn’t realize that his level of preparation is immediately evident to everyone around him.
A quote from Abraham Lincoln shaped my life and my attitude as I was growing up. He said, as a young man in Springfield, Illinois, “I shall study and prepare myself and some day my chance will come.” He recognized, as do all great men and women, that painstaking preparation was the key to his ...
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