It is common for someone who does not have a lot of money to see someone with a lot of money as being lucky. Or they may say, that it was easy for that person because of xyz. They see a successful millionaire and think that everything just worked out for them and they must have had some money to start with or Lady Luck was on their side. Too many times we don’t see success for what is really is. In Beau Norton’s book, 4 Simple Steps to Massive Success, he identified what I truly believe success is:
“What we call ‘success’ is actually a long series of ‘failures’ mixed with a few successes here and there.”
That’s right. The successful people are the ones who have experienced failure over, over, and over again with some small wins here and there, until eventually they came out on top. The difference between these successful people and the ones who are not is what they do when they hit a failure. Most people stop when they hit a wall. They think, “I guess this is it” and they just stop. It is the successful ones who push through the wall, or find a way around the wall. That’s all success is…iterative steps, improving upon things as we go along, with small wins and many losses mixed in.
Let’s see what it looks like…
Successful People Who Have Failed But Didn’t Stop
Thomas Edison – He failed thousands of times trying to create the light bulb. His response was, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Michael Jordan – He was cut from his high school basketball team. But he kept at it to become the greatest basketball player of all time. Even as the best basketball player of all times, he experienced failure when trying to make the major leagues in baseball, and has been the GOAT in many professional basketball games. His response was,
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Charles Schulz (Creator of the comic strip Peanuts) – His cartoons were rejected by his high school yearbook staff, he was lousy at sports, and flunked 8th grade. His cartoons were also rejected by many studios and publishing firms. If he gave up, we would have never met Charlie Brown or Snoopy!!!
Conclusion
The point to be made here is that it is very deceiving to look at someone who is successful. It may seem like they have it made and it was an easy road, but most of the time those roads to success are marked with many, many failures. The difference is that those who succeed do NOT quit when they hit road blocks. They carry on. They push through. They don’t give up.
If you want to be successful and add some money to your wallet, you have to persevere as well. You have to grit your teeth and bare every failure on the road to success. Remember, if success were easy, everyone would be successful. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Yeah, another clichè, but these things are so true!!!