“Everyone who achieves success in a great venture, solves each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They keep going regardless of the obstacles they met.”  - W. Clement Stone

On days like today, it is important to remember the great men and women before us who took chances, who set out on paths into the unknown in order to accomplish something greater. Today, in the US we remember Christopher Columbus. The Italian-born who had set sail in 1842, backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; instead, he landed in the Bahamas, becoming the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.

Columbus’ story is quite interesting. Many may read it and see that he too failed to success. He did not achieve his original goal of finding an easier route to the eastern world but his voyage took him somewhere else and allowed for the unknown to happen. His landing opened the door that allowed settlement by the Europeans into the Americas. For the Europeans this was a good thing. For those who had already settled in the Americas, this was a bad thing.

No matter what you think of Columbus and his voyage the key thing to take away from this story is the fact that he took action. He took action and went down a path that was completely unknown. He took a major risk by setting sail into the open waters, having no idea where he would end up but hoping somehow he would sail to the land of Asia. And even though his plan went off course a bit and took him somewhere different, he still gained something from his voyage. This is important to remember in your own life and the voyage you may be on. Too many times we take a step in a certain direction and expect things to go as we have planned but we have to remember that the thing that we have planned may not be what we are supposed to find. We have to keep ours eyes open to everything that is around us and realize that the success we achieve may look different than when we first set sail.

I hope you will take this time to plan out your very own life voyage. What is it that you would like to accomplish? It doesn’t have to be something like sailing around the world to find something new, but take a moment sometime today or this week and write down what action you are going to take to start your very own voyage to success. As I said above, success turns out different for every person and every situation. But in order to achieve success we must define what success is.

Do it. Take Action. AND Always BU.