It takes grit and determination to be successful. Do you have any idea how many ‘overnight success stories’ have worked for over twenty years and applied grit and determination over and over again in order to become an ‘overnight success story’ ? More than you would ever imagine!
We all love to think someone is an overnight success story. It sounds so – Hollywood!
After all it is so much more sexy to be an overnight success story than to say someone worked their tail off for twenty years, overcame failure after failure and had the grit and determination to continue through and past the endless naysayers and doubters to make it.
The numbers tell the story. There are very few people who continue through the journey and follow all the way to achieve their idea or their dream. Right in the beginning is where the largest separation takes place. Most people never get started. They do not even take the first step.
The next separation takes place between the people who become stuck, as if in quick sand, on the how.
“How am I ever going to do the thing” or “How am I ever going to do that”? Whatever it is instead of moving along and doing what needs to be done, they feel they must know all of the answers to how first. They never move past this point.
The third separation from the pack takes place upon declaration. Once you declare to your family and your friends what you are working on and what you intend to do each of them will freely explain to you why you are “out of your mind”. Or maybe you will hear, “oh and why do you feel you are prepared to do that?” This will be the very tip of the naysayers who will find you from the day of your declaration and forever more. Many do not actually intend for you to feel badly. The issue is inside their own mind they need you to stop or to fail. This is the only way they are able to justify why they never began and never started on their idea or their own dream.
The fourth separation is a continual process. Due to the fact this will repeat itself over and over again. The initial time is the largest separation from the remaining pack. It is failure. The very first roadblock or failure will deter the majority of anyone left on their journey. The few people who have the grit and determination to drive through the roadblock, who pick themselves up after that failure and continue on their journey, these are the few who will make it to become the ‘overnight success stories’.
Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach who resides in Stamford, CT.
