At this point in my life I wouldn't consider myself a success story. Notwithstanding I am not a failure either. In fact I have had success in various endeavors and I have learned from those accomplishments as I have learned from my perceived failures that I have had. Even so there is one thing I have learned from the success of others that I think is the key to maintaining success or reaching an even greater achievement.
Not to toot my own horn but I have had a level of success in the athletic and music world. I have built and sold a small business of 25 employees. I have enjoyed many hours in doing rewarding volunteer work. I also have a wonderful family and receive many blessings from that. So the point of this article is not to brag or complain but to pass on a key element that I am trying to master and perhaps others also will benefit from that same information. Make no mistake about it I would like to build on my musical pursuits and expand my writing opportunities. And of course build on the joy of my family and personal goals.
Having read or viewed numerous biographical testimonies there is one glaring ability that most if not all successful people possess. That ability and thus the key I am presenting in this article, is the uncanny capacity to put rejection and failure behind you. In fact not seeing as a failure but as an obstacle.
For example a salesman may make one sale per every hundred people he presents his product to. A good or successful salesman doesn't look at the 99 refusals as rejection he sees that as the 99 people that had to be eliminated to get to the one sale. Sounds simple and reasonable but few can do this easily. But we can learn from those who can.
Take Tom Monaghan who in 1960 bought a pizza shop with his brother James for about $600. After only eight months James was unhappy with the difficulty of running the store and the little profit that was being made. They were not making ends meet. He traded his half of the business to Tom in exchange for a VW Beetle. Tom always looked forward and was convinced that it was just a matter of time until he saw the fruits of his labor and patience. Tom changed the name of his pizza shop from Dominick's Pizza to Domino's Pizza. He survived barely paying his bills, a fire, and a law suit from Domino sugar over trademark-infringement and much more. He never looked back and as a result we know the rest of the story.
Most entertainers rarely get discovered from their first try. In fact many of the most popular ones refused to take no for an answer. Even Madonna lived in an abandon house for awhile. She, as many aspiring artists that make it, considered this time as paying her dues. Walt Disney rationed his daily food intake to save every cent he could to start his company because no one believed in him enough invest in him. Rodney Dangerfield was almost 40 years old until he decided to be a comic. As funny as he was he too suffered numerous turn backs. He took it in stride.
It is similar to the athlete who looks at the next play and forgets the last. You are only as good as the last thing you do is the motto of most successful professional athletes. Joe Montana would simply shrug off interceptions and move on to the next possession. He never thought to himself I have to make up for that one. He simply put the last play out his mind. Again that is easier said than done.
Or consider a guy like Donald Trump who was given a mammoth head start by his father. He was given $40 million to go on his own. By his own admission he was reckless and almost lost it all. Part of his initial downfall was,as he put it, was his obsession on every success and failure. It was his near collapse that made him focus only on the next deal. His basic premise is you make money by the deals you make not by the deals that got away.
And there are countless of others that I could use as an example. The common theme that you would gleen hwoever is their refusal to see a set back as a failure.
All of these people view it like walking down the street one step at a time and occasionally having to move backward or sideways to avoid an obstacle preventing them from moving forward. While most of us would exaggerate the challenges and/or see those obstacles as impossible to put behind us. The average person looks for the path of least resistance or likes the perceived safe route.
Ironically this is part of the key element also. The aforementioned and the others, who have been just as accomplished in their own right, make avoiding obstacles akin to the path of least resistance. But they still are determined to be moving beyond and making forward progress.
As a result I have resolved to keep plugging away and excepting the challenges that come with it. I will continue to try and refine my definition of failure and not concede or give in to it.
