I have studied successful people my entire life, people who have achieved unusual levels of success in all endeavors: athletics, arts, business, journalism and politics. And in almost all cases the one point of differentiation between the achievers and those who fall short is their willingness to keep getting up off the ground – no matter how many times they are knocked down.

As Thomas Edison said: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Or, as put a different way by Winston Churchill: “Success is going from failure to failure, without loss of enthusiasm.”

The way I have it figured, success in life is to some degree a law of averages. That is, if one does enough of the right things over a period of time to achieve his or her goal, sooner or later good things will result. The problem is, of course, the sooner or later part. For some fortunate people success comes sooner. But, somehow, for the great majority of us, it comes “later“ or, certainly later than we would like. The key is to be patient and not let yourself get disillusioned.

Here is one suggestion for keeping the faith: you need to consider any event of failure, any effort with no positive result as a learning experience. When Thomas Edison was asked whether he was frustrated by his many unsuccessful efforts at creating an incandescent light bulb, his response was:

“Why no … now I have discovered 10,000 ways that don’t work.” He might have added: “which
takes me that much closer to success.”

In other words, the road to success is paved with bricks of failure. If you have a goal in mind and you have been working toward it for longer than you would like, you need to think about yourself today versus the person you were when you began the passage toward your goal. Are you not a stronger and more knowledgeable individual? As such, you may be much closer to the realization of your goal than you think.

As an entrepreneur, there have been many times in my life when I worked and worked and worked at a deal and yet came up empty-handed. During these stretches it was hard to maintain my spirit but I found strength in the lives of many people I knew and individuals I had read about – who just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Sooner or later (there is that phrase again!), good stuff started to happen and the tide turned.

During one particularly difficult time in my life, I created a mantra based on the words of our 30th President, Calvin Coolidge who wrote: “Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “Press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” return to front