Did you know that Thomas Edison’s school teacher suggested he should go into a field where he had a chance of succeeding with his charms and personality – but instead proceeded to persevere and invented the lightbulb
A French reporter asked him how it felt to fail 999 times – he quipped that he did not fail 999 times but instead learned from his 999 mistakes.
Most of us would have simply given up and walked away – but for Edison each failure simply showed him how to learn valuable lessons that enabled him to tweak his inventions until he perfected it.
Abraham Lincoln is another fine example – he failed twice in business and lost a massive eight elections before becoming one of the greatest presidents of all time in the US.
Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he was said to lack imagination and had no original ideas and Dick Rowe and Mike Smith of Decca records turned down the Beatles!
Risk-taking is what life is all about. Trying and failing and then trying again will get you closer to your goal and dreams.
When you are an entrepreneur there will always be those doom-Sayers who will tell you something cannot be done or achieved; that your product or service will fail- and that customers will never pay for it and that there is way too much competition or that the risks are too great.
If we listened to all the negativity, particularly when starting out – there would be no businesses around.
Persistence is without question one of the most crucial characteristics that successful people all share. Regardless of challenges, obstacles or setbacks, they continue to forge ahead.
It is not so much about the person with the most brilliant idea – it is more about dogged persistence, and loving what you do by following your passion is more important than doing something just to get rich, because you are more than likely going to be doing this for a very, very long time.
Most people give up just when they are about to achieve great success. They quit and give up the last minute of the game, one foot from the goal post.
Don’t be like those entrepreneurs who will kick themselves for giving up too soon – and remember before giving up you are far closer than you think.
