Time Magazine recently devoted much of a recent edition to the increasing difficulty of upward mobility in the U.S. Much of the magazine pointed out how difficult it is to achieve the so-called “American Dream” in today’s economic reality. The richest are richer and the bottom dwellers have almost no chance of “making it big.” Is it true? I’m not sure. But it definitely hasn’t stopped me from trying to achieve it. At the very least I can say the following are true:

  1. Get lucky.
  2. Make your own luck.
  3. Work insanely hard.
  4. Learn from inevitable mistakes.