Over the years I have avoided giving religious advice. I am not an expert there and everyone certainly has their own unique beliefs. Me included.

And despite the title, I’m not going to give religious advice here.

Instead, I want to address a common “superstition” I consistently run into with people starting and building their own business. I call it “blaming God.”

Success requires appropriate and consistent work. Success requires perseverance. Success never comes without a degree of adversity.

Success is always difficult to achieve, no matter what area of life.

Many people, as soon as they experience adversity, will assume the adversity comes from a divine force opposing their success. This is probably more common when people are trying to achieve financial success rather than other areas because of religious beliefs regarding the evils of money.

But before you blame God, maybe looking at a few other factors are in order:

1. Are you putting forth consistent effort?
   
   If you are working in a haphazard or inconsistent way, you are probably just experiencing the “normal” consequences of your inconsistency.
   
   
2. Are you putting forth appropriate effort?
   
   I will never fly—at least not without an airplane. No matter how much I believe I will fly, no matter how much I work on building my arm muscles, no amount of flapping will ever lift me off the ground.
   
   In the same way, some people do all the wrong things and expect super-human results. If you are experiencing failure, possibly you aren’t putting effort into the right things.
   
   
3. Is the adversity you are experiencing unusual?
   
   Before you blame divine intervention for this “incredible opposition” you are experiencing, ask others who have already succeeded if your experience is unusual. It’s possible you are simply experiencing the normal process of success through overcoming adversity.