Saying goodbye to overnight success
If you had to boil down being successful into one concept, what would it be?
I always think of persistence. Doing something that gets you one step closer to your goal every day. This aligns with the clichés we hear about success. “One day at a time.” “One foot in front of the other.”
We know success isn’t easy, but sometimes we forget.
Probably because we’re always hearing about some “overnight success” story. These stories can hold us back. We might wait for something to come along that we think will get us quick success. Or, when we do start, we get discouraged and quit when things don’t pick up fast.
You might not have heard of the people in the stories below. They’re not particularly rich or famous, but they accomplished the goals the set for themselves. That makes them successful.
If you’re interested in writing a book, you’ve probably heard stories about popular books that were rejected in the beginning. Stephen King’s Carrie, was rejected 30 times, and Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected 140 times!
Ron Balson decided to self-publish his book, Once We Were Brothers, after being rejected many times over the course of a year. He and his son created their own publishing company and ordered 750 books. They sold each book one by one, in addition to ebooks. Sales improved every month, and by the end of two years they sold 100,000 copies. They had finally got the attention of St. Martin’s Press, who acquired the rights and republished it.
I heard Paola Mata’s story on the CodeNewbie podcast, but you can also read about her coding journey in her blog post. Paola spent six years job hopping before she discovered she wanted to learn to code.
She wanted to make a career change fast, but her path to becoming a developer took two years. She fell behind a few weeks into a bootcamp she signed up for, but was still able to land an 6-month internship at a startup.
After her internship ended, she set out to find a job. Through some tough interviews, she realized she wasn’t ready. She took a short break and considered quitting. During that time, she realized her mindset was holding her back.
With a new attitude in tow, she joined another bootcamp. After graduating, she felt confident in her abilities, but it still took months of interviewing before she landed her first full-time job.
Linda Singh is a Major General in the U.S. Army (as a civilian, she was Director of Operations at Accenture). The beginning of her life was full of struggle. She endured a variety of abuses throughout her childhood and was a homeless runaway high school dropout at the age of 17.
Instead of going to school, she worked at a pretzel stand in a mall. She saw a recruiter near her stand one day and decided to talk to him while she was on her break. That moment was the first step on her path to success.
When we see success, we see the finished product. The rich and famous person. The best-selling book or million dollar company. We don’t see the words that were written every day, for months or years. And we don’t see the work that was done every night after coming home from a full-time job.
If it’s taking you a long time to meet your goal or become successful at something, you’re right where you’re supposed to be.
