I was contemplating today the making of a yummy baked good. Perhaps because I strolled into a bakery and they had fresh cinnamon rolls. Not the cinnabon style of prefab frozen things, but the real home made kind. The kind that slays you with just a brief whiff of the aroma.
So I had some drive time today, and so i spent most the day contemplating cinnamon rolls. I was thinking what makes them so good, what is the key ingredient?
You could argue flour, sugar, cinnamon, yeast and many other things. My daughter would say, the frosting. In fact, ditch the pastry and just eat the frosting. However, you realize quickly in your analysis that all the ingredients are necessary for the perfect cinnamon roll.
And so it is with success. I was thinking today that perseverance was beyond all other things the most important ingredient for success. However, I started to realize that there were many other things you have to bring to the table as well. You have to have a good plan, choose a good path, be willing to work hard and to have a little humility thrown in for good measure.
So, there ended up being no aha moment in this ponderence of thought. I just came to the obvious conclusion that to be successful you have to have a good balance of the right ingredients. Now how do you get that right?
To answer that, lets go back to that bakery this morning. The last time I saw the man mixing those ingredients in the back was about 30 years ago. He and I were both much younger then. His cinnamon rolls were good then too, but you know what? It tasted a whole lot better than I remembered! Perhaps the answer is years and years of dedicated practice.
Guy Reams
