you love, and this is Q&A Tuesday. Today's question comes from Leslie and she writes:

"Hi, Marie. I'm so relieved that you shared with us that your journey to success has not

been an overnight sensation. Here's my question: when you see a story from someone saying they've

completely transformed their business and are making a six figure income in only a few

short months. Is this the modern version of a snake oil salesman? Or can a new business

really have this fast of an upturn? I'm curious to know if there's a specific tipping point

that can take a business from "meh" to "yay."

Leslie, this is an awesome question. I've seen a lot of those instant success stories

and I can completely understand your skepticism. We live in a completely overhyped culture

where people want a better body, better relationship, more money in three easy steps, and they want

it yesterday. Want the truth? Most people have completely lost touch with what it really

takes to be successful. If you want to be wealthy, influential and world class in your

field, strap yourself in and get ready to work harder and longer than you've ever worked

before.

Being successful is not easy and it does not happen fast. You have to earn it. Here's the

thing: most of what it takes to get successful is painstaking, it's tedious and the day-to-day

is boring, but no one ever tells you that, so let's get to it; three real truths about

overnight success.

Truth #1 -- overnight success is the extreme rare exception, not the rule.

So yes, while it is possible for someone to achieve fast results, and there are legit

people that do it, for the vast majority of us, lasting success takes a lot of time and

a lot of hard work. You got to remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint, and especially in

the beginning, there's no accolades, no fanfare, hardly any money, not a lot of recognition,

often for years. Take a look at actor Jeremy Renner who I happen to love. He seemingly

came out of nowhere because he's all over the place right now, but if you do a little

bit of research, you'll see that many have called him an overnight success 20 years in

the making. Yes, sometimes there are breakthrough moments that propel someone into the public

eye, but those usually come after years of laying a foundation. You've got to remember

this, even if you have a breakthrough moment or some kind of highlight, often times you

have to work even harder to keep it all going.

Truth #2 -- You're likely not getting the whole story.

Whenever you see a little blurb on a website, or even an article in a magazine about someone's

rise to fast success, you got to understand that you're probably not hearing the whole

story. Sometimes that's by design; either the person or the media wants to position

a story in a certain way, and other times, it's just because they don't have enough space

to tell the whole story. Let's take your example of hearing about someone who went from zero

to six figures very fast; what you may not know is that she had a lot of experience in

her field prior to starting her business, like 10,000 hours worth of experience, and

maybe she already came with a killer network under her belt, or maybe she's a really seasoned

marketer and she decided to pivot into this new business. What you may not be hearing

about is all the hard knocks she went through or all the killer habits she developed before

this new venture. No matter what the reason, you've got to remember, whether it's short

little blurbs or media pieces, chances are you're not hearing the whole story.

Truth #3 -- Explosive growth can be a recipe for disaster.

You got to be careful what you wish for here because if you're not prepared, overnight

success can take your company down fast. Think about it; an enormous influx of customers

can blow up your website, it can totally stress out your team and it can turn into a customer

service nightmare. You can actually destroy your brand if you're not prepared for overnight

success. That kind of fast massive growth requires a strong team, a really solid foundation

and an ability to scale, and those things take time and experience to develop. When

it comes to overnight success, here's the bottom line, and yes, it's a tweetable:

"If you want to be an overnight success, you need to be an everyday hustler."

Slow and steady wins the race. The only true path to success is making the right choices

daily again and again and again and again.

That was my A to your Q, Leslie; hope it helps. Now I would love to hear from you. What's

your experience with overnight success? Have you been one or do you know anyone who is?

Tell me your story.

As always the best discussions happen after the episode over a MarieForleo.com, so go

there and leave a comment now.

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Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special

gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I'll catch you next time

on MarieTV.