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We learned in the last three lessons about earning your own luck: The Law of Luck is that everyone is entitled to their own lucky breaks in life. Contrary to popular belief, no one has a monopoly on luck. Luck is 100% earned. Over a long enough timeline everyone is entitled to his or her lucky break. This is true provided they work hard and are smart about how they work hard. This leads me to the second necessity for making your dreams come true:

2. The second necessity is Defying the Odds, to earn your Lucky Break, with Intelligent Hard Work.

I know what you are thinking: *Oh, no! Another lecture about working hard to get what I want!* But wait until you see what I have to say about it*There is a lot of talk about working hard to get what you want, but rarely is it properly explained.
Hard work is more than activity, more than repetitious motion. Actually, I have come to discover that busy people are usually the laziest people. To me, hard work is best described as the process of maximizing one's potential. To work hard at anything is to unceasingly strive to be the best that you can be.

For example, let's say right now you want to improve your finances.
You can*t stand your current job, but you can*t stand the thought of being broke either. You wouldn*t mind working at home, but do not believe anyone can actually do it without being in a traditional employee/employer relationship. You*ve read about people earning passive income comparable to the earnings of lawyers and doctors. But you are doubtful: You do not actually know of anyone who is actually doing it.

Deep down inside you want to be rich, control your schedule, and not have to answer to anybody. The problem is you don*t know what to do. So you panic and believe the hype! You do what any *sensible person* would do. You go out and get a second job. That makes sense, right? *If I work two jobs I can earn twice the amount that I am making now! Then I can pay my bills and have more money!* Sounds practical, doesn*t it? Maybe you*ve done it before. Maybe you are doing it now. In reality, this would be the lazy man's way out.

A good saying a guy told me years ago was *Never confuse activity with achievement.* He was kind of being a hypocrite because he was one of those super-hyper MLM guys, you know, the kind everybody hates. He was always ripping and running across the country trying to build his business and do things that were beyond his means. It was pathetic really. Last I heard he was selling plasma for $20 each visit. But he was right about the activity thing. Too often we think that the more activity we engage ourselves in the more we will earn. But this just is not true.

If that was the case, people who swing hammers in factories all day would be some of the leading wage earners in the world. Sure these people physically work hard everyday, but I am unsure if they truly work hard mentally. In fact, if they are swinging a hammer all day to build something for a corporation, then I would venture to say that they are mentally lazy. I would say the people who are reaping the fruits of their labors are Mentally Active. In the next lesson we will uncover who truly works harder: The Hammer Swinger or the Mentally Active Planner?