Obstacles and Opportunities

Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure. - Earl Wilson

It seems whenever I talk about a successful person, someone will inevitably say something like, "Yeah, they got all the breaks." Or, "If I had been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I could have been a high achiever, too." Or, my favorite, "She is so lucky." Sour grapes from sour people always produce a sour whine!

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike? - Jean Cocteau

The truth is, most people who have achieved at a high level have done so in spite of obstacles. It may be that the process of overcoming is the essential factor in attaining success.

In The Psychology of Motivation, Denis Waitley tells the story of a laundry worker who earned sixty dollars a week at his job, but he had a burning desire to be a writer. While his wife worked at night he stayed home and typed his manuscripts. When he finished each one, he would send it to publishers and agents, only to be rejected each time with a form letter. He never even knew if his manuscript had been opened, much less read.

But he continued. Finally, he received a personal rejection letter, quite a step up for this fledgling writer. It was a warm, personal note stating that although his work wasn't good enough for publishing, he showed promise and he should keep trying. Keep trying he did. Every moment of free time he spent writing, finally finishing another manuscript, sending it to the friendly publisher. It was rejected. Then another. Same story. Finances got so tight that the young writer and his wife turned off their phone so they could pay the medical bills for their new baby.

Luck take a second look at what appears to be someone's "good luck." You'll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking. - David Joseph Schwartz

After eighteen months, he had finished another manuscript, but in discouragement and despair he threw the manuscript in the garbage. But his wife saw what he had done and rescued his work. She believed in him and sent the work to Doubleday, the publisher who had sent him the friendly rejections. That manuscript rescued from the trash was published. The title, Carrie, sold over five million copies, and was one of the top-grossing films of 1976. Stephen King would never have to work in the laundry again!

No-one gets an iron-clad guarantee of success. Certainly, factors like opportunity, luck and timing are important. But the backbone of success is usually found in old-fashioned, basic concepts like hard work, determination, good planning and perseverance. - Mia Hamm

What kind of obstacles are you facing? Is discouragement crouching at your door? Don't give up. Turn those obstacles into opportunities to learn, improve, and discover new ways to succeed. Then, with time, hard work and perseverance, you too can become an overnight success.

Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper and be satisfied. - Proverbs 13:4, Holy Bible