The biggest barrier facing you is not the amount of money in your bank account. To quote Arnold Bennett, an English novelist, “Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity.” What you do need is time to invest. Don’t think that just because you read this book you’ll prepare a proposal, walk in with a prototype, pitch it, magically get a deal, and start cashing advance and royalty checks. This is a long, tough road that’s always under construction. You’ve heard this old saw by Thomas Edison before, but it’s worth repeating: “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

Whether you’re a clerk, plumber, psychologist, sailor, lawyer, dentist, priest, or university president, if you’re the best at what you do, it has taken your full-time focus and hands-on experience. You didn’t reach the heights of your career working part-time. Nothing great was ever achieved without blood, sweat, and tears.

Two common denominators that appear in the stories of each and every successful individual are sacrifice and risk. People who have reached the top of their game didn’t do so by standing back, shivering and contemplating the cold waters of uncertainty. They jumped in with both feet and scrambled through as best they could.

Bud Grant, a former head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, said that you practice hard all week long so that when the ball bounces your way on Sunday afternoon, you will know what to do with it. It’s no different for you. You’ll play as you practice.

I’m not suggesting that you give up your day job tomorrow, but prepare yourself for a change of attitude, pace, and routine. If you work hard enough, even if you’re not the most inventive person, you’ll position yourself within the lightning strike zone. As you can tell by now, I love quotes, and one from Woody Allen seems appropriate here. He said that 90 percent of success is showing up.