There’s nothing more I love than a great success story and this one is so powerful and yet so simple at the same time.

It shows the power of consistency and how it can impact your future in ways you can never imagine.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise so without further ado, I present to you verbatim, a story of how half an hour a day opened up a world of opportunity for Sally Deng.

I want to thank Sally for taking the time to write and share this. I really appreciate it!

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Dear Brian,

I keep reading your emails and it helps me a lot. I want to take this chance to say thank you. I did forward them to my friends.

When I received this email I kept thinking what kind of success story I have. In my own mind success means you did something right which bring you more and give you chance to know more. So this is my story.

I learned English!

I was born in a very poor family in a Chinese village in 1974. I never know I will have chance to use English in my life when I was small. I never saw any foreigner and we were still worrying about the food at that time. We could only eat wheat during the New Year and the corn were the main grain we had. Of course going to abroad was like flying to the heaven. But we still had English class even in the primary school. I did not need to understand why but just do it.

Not many students had interest at all and they believed that they won't need it in their lives. I am a very good girl and I do not want my parents suffer more because of me so I respected and followed all the words from them. My performance in the school was very good, of course including the English Class.

When I was upgraded to the junior high school I luckily had very young and beautiful (in my eyes) English teacher. She looks more beautiful when she speaks English fluently. Since then I got up early in the morning and read English loudly for half an hour everyday. I could recite all the text before the course started. I kept doing this till the university. Since we did not really have much chance to speak in English, most of the students can read but can not really understand and speak. I had no problem with any of then just because of that half an hour.

I was offered half a year spoken English training because my good English record when I just started to work. Then again because I can speak English well I was hired by an international company which gave me much better salary and had significant influence in my life. And more important I had chance to work with the people from all over the world.

Now I am working as international employee in the Oil industry in Africa, I will be transferred to another country very soon. I am traveling around the world. My view has never stopped changing.

I do not know this is a success story or not. But I feel so grateful to my first English teacher. She introduced me to English with happiness and this open a huge window for me to the whole world.

Rgds,

Sally Deng

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Well Sally, let me just say – that IS a success story. A truly remarkable one and a great one because it has so many great points that we all can learn from.

Thank you again for taking the time to write it. I really appreciate it.

What can we take away from this story?

Among many things, the one that stands out is the power of sheer consistency.

Just 30 minutes a day took Sally from a poor family in a Chinese village to traveling around the world in a great high paying job.

30 minutes a day.

And notice how the opportunities started coming because of that consistency – more training and a great job offer that allows Sally to travel all over the world.

I know so many people who would LOVE to have that kind of job – to be paid well and to travel the world.

And it all came from just 30 minutes of practice a day.

There’s another point to take out of Sally’s story and that is the importance of teachers and mentors in our lives.

It’s always important to have one and if you can’t find a real life person, there’s always books to drink deeply from.

Mentors have a way of helping bring things out of you that you would never realize by yourself. They can help you find subjects you’re interested in and help you pursue them.

And if you spend just 30 minutes a day pursuing a certain subject, whether it's learning a foreign language, working out, reading, brainstorming, bonding with your kids, practicing tennis, whatever it is, if you do it consistently, great things will happen.

And the best part is when you find out what those great things are.

Consistency is a beautiful thing.

A beautiful thing.

Because it builds the “muscle” behind “serendipity” over time and you will find so many doors and opportunities open because of it.

And in Sally’s case, literally - a world of opportunity.