The Midas Touch & Paying Dues
By: Mike Burke
 

When I was a young lad, I knew a guy who seemed to be perfect. Fred had everything. All the guys liked Fred, and it sure seemed like the girls all went gaga over him. Fred was always one of the first ones picked in any game where two people took turns selecting the members of their team. An excellent student, an above average athlete, everything came so easy to him. I figured he just had it all.

There are other people in my life that, like Fred, seemed to have anything they wanted just by wanting it. I call people like Fred “People with the Midas Touch”.

There is something funny I have discovered over the years. “People with the Midas Touch”, are just people. The perception of everything being easy for them is an illusion. They work hard!

When I was in the Air Force a long time ago (so long it seems that I could as well say a long long time ago in a faraway land) I met another guy with the Midas Touch. I so much wanted things to come that easily for me. I finally screwed up the courage to talk to Gary about his good fortune and ask what he did that made life seem so easy.

There were only two things more surprising than the fact that he answered me. The first was he was absolutely sincere and honest. The other and what over time has changed my world was what he told me and the conversation we had about it.

“Nothing comes so easy” he told me. “Before I try my hand at something new I study, hard”, Gary told me. He then added “Before I do it in public I practice alone. Every time I do anything, I try to remember what parts I did well and I make them part of the way I do things, and I also try to find what I did poorly and plan a way to do it better.” Over time I learned that what Gary does I can do. It is a great deal of hard work, but the pay off is that when I finally do something with others, I do it well and it feels great to be competent in my endeavors.

A different Long Long Time Ago in a different far away place another friend gave me a gift to go with the one Gary gave me. One day when I was feeling particularly put upon by my bosses and out of sorts with the world, Norm noticed my blues. I guess I was lucky because when I started to pour out my dissatisfaction with never getting anywhere, feeling like I had paid my dues, and believing that it was about time that I got my fair share, he was sympathetic. Not too sympathetic though. He told me that I had paid my dues, that I was also getting my fair share. He showed me that there were a number of folks we worked with who had not yet paid those dues, and that they were below me in the pecking order Norm told that paying dues is something that never stops. From Norm I learned that making it His something that is relative. “Better off” looks better off because we don’t have it. Once we have it, it just seems normal.

Every endeavor is its own payoff! Each set of dues is for more advanced membership! Each challenge is a new challenge!
When I feel that the People with the Midas Touch are getting everything and I am getting nothing maybe I should also ask how much effort I am putting into the pursuit of my desires. When it seems I am not getting the proper payoff for the dues I have paid I should look at where I am compared to where I was before paying those dues.

I guess if you want the Midas Touch you just keep on paying your dues.