I have a poster on the wall of my office (here at the University of Richmond). It has been there now for at least 20 years. It is a wonderful essay written by Joe Paterno that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal two decades ago. Even now, I read this essay about every three months. Paterno is one of the true winners in this world and I have always been fascinated by what true winners have to say. I think you can learn more helpful stuff from true winners than you can from anyone else. Losers tell you how to lose; winners tell you how to win.
There are a number of lines in Paterno's essay that I love but the main one (for me) is:
"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."
It is a line that-even after 20 years-I think about often. To me, success is all about "the will to prepare."
I have worked with thousands of students and CPA exam candidates over the years and the desire to win and succeed and get rich and famous is almost universal. Heck, who wouldn't want that? If you walk into any group and just ask "how many of you folks want to be successful, want to be winners?" they will practically knock you down as they wave their hands in the air.
Don't let anyone tell you there is a shortage of ambition in the world.
However, from my experience, true success comes from what I call "channeled ambition." That is the deep desire that gives you the strength to get up and do the dull and boring stuff that you have to do in order to be successful. In other words, channeled ambition provides you with the energy needed to prepare yourself for success-not just occasionally but every day. And, that is very tough because preparation can be truly boring so that it can be easy to fall back on shortcuts. We are hyperactive people; we love shortcuts. I'm convinced that most people fool themselves into believing that shortcuts work as well as real preparation (and that just isn't the case). It takes incredible self-discipline to skip the shortcuts and do the preparatory work every day. Do you have channeled ambition?
At this very moment, I am giving a final exam to my Intermediate Accounting II class. It is an extremely hard course covering deferred taxes, defined benefit pension plans, capital leases, earnings per share, statement of cash flows, contingencies, bonds, and the like. I was talking before the test with one of my students who really wants to improve her grade. I knew she had been working quite hard for this exam because I had gotten a number of questions by email from her over the week-end. I asked her how many hours she had studied for this one test. Her response was quick: about 30. Most students simply don't have the self-discipline to study 30 hours for one college test. I don't know how she will do but she has put herself into position where she can do well. That is what I want when the test starts-for her to be in position to do well. Without proper preparation, it is almost impossible to work those intermediate accounting questions. With preparation, she has a great chance to earn a better grade. There are no guarantees but she has a good shot.
Whether it is Intermediate Accounting II or the CPA Exam or just life in general, there is little advice that can be better than what Joe Paterno wrote in the Wall Street Journal about 20 years ago:
"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital."
Joe - CPA Review for Free
