Persistence, Elbow Grease, Farmville Cheats and the BigMac

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
- Calvin Coolidge

Do a search for: FarmVille cheats.
FarmVille is the virtual game played by millions on Facebook .
This is what I came up with on three different search engines:
 Google - 1,330,000
 Yahoo - 699,000
 Bing - 698,000
Apparently there are a few people who would like to know how to cheat at this game. FarmVille cheats, as in: How can I cheat my way up? How can I appear to have earned my way by cheating (without others knowing I am a cheater)? How can I appear to be, 'in the know', when I’m not?
I’ve never played the game. Actually, I’ve never played any virtual game. Okay, the fact that I am a little behind times isn't the point. The point I'm trying to make here is the famous shortcut. Easy. Get rich quick.
It seems to be the pervading thought in our society: if there’s an easy way, count me in.
We are looking for the path of least resistance.
This attitude would explain why there are not many of us who can play Chopin on the piano. This also would explain why there aren’t many people with black belts in a given martial art. Why so comparatively few have even attempted to run a marathon.
We are the second fattest industrialized nation in the world according to an extensive report in The Lancet. Thanks Kuwait :). It appears easy to gobble up a BigMac (biggie size me please!). Years of piano lessons, not so.
It is also quite easy to pick up the phone and order the bestest-ever exercise machine that’s guaranteed to work. Not quite as easy though to actually commit to using it in order to collect on the money back guarantee.

Darn it. I want the magic pill. And, I want it n-o-w!
This post was in-part inspired by an article I read on Jonathan Fields’ blog. The article is titled, ‘Making Money From Quitters’. You can read the comment I made there :) The article takes to task the health club corporate world for counting on and expecting people to quit. It helps the bottom line. If all the members of a club showed up at once, well, lets just say there would be bedlam. Bigger clubs would have to be built. Maintenance costs would go up. It is better for the health club if you would join, and then go and sit on your rump and have your BigMac.
So. Whose fault is this? Maybe we should blame both McDonalds and the health club corporate world. McDonalds for having such an irresistable hamburger. And, the health club corporates for just not caring about meeting our needs. We should also blame the bun makers, for making good buns for those good hamburgers. And, the exercise equipment makers for making good exercise equipment that we don’t use because the corporates don’t care about meeting our needs. Pickle makers are to blame also. In fact, there is plenty of blame to go around. I would like to take this chance to blame my parents, because had they used the car three years earlier, I would have invented the internet :)
Since I didn’t though, I guess I’ll meet you at McDonalds and we’ll talk about how the health club corporates ripped us off (over a BigMac).
P.S. Please bring a copy of, ‘How I Cheated My Way to the Top of FarmVille’.
We’ll read it together.
Live it LOUD!
Rob