The Best Advice From People Who’ve Been Through It All
Invaluable advice from those who’ve struggled relentlessly and experienced life’s biggest hurdles.
Compiling a small list of people who, after relentless effort and consistent struggle, achieved success is an arduous task — I have to make sure I don’t bias myself toward my own idols.
I’ve been a huge advocate for learning from those who’ve been through diverse experiences and had the most nerve-wracking of hurdles to face — not just for inspiration, but also for obtaining objective techniques on improving perseverance, focus, and discipline.
While we may not need to face the same challenges that they did, we break easily from much simpler difficulties.
However, we can get better.
The simple act of observing those who were possibly at a worse stage in life than us, and their journey toward greatness, is one that isn’t just awe-inspiring but also encouraging.
Stephen King
As a writer, it would be a sin for me to not mention one of America’s most acclaimed writers. But his success didn’t come easy. These days, despite the medium of the internet, establishing a career in writing is hard enough, and can’t be relied upon for primary income at the beginning.
Rewind to more than 70 years ago, a young Stephen worked odd jobs to sustain his family, while at the same time, trying to make a name for himself by writing. His first novel, “Carrier”, was rejected by more than 30 publishers before finally being accepted. Had Stephen given up after 10 rejections, America would be missing a prolific author.
One of his memorable quotes is,
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
The first sentence cuts sharper than knives. If you’re blessed with a natural talent, fantastic! Will it guarantee you success? Absolutely not. We’re all aware of at least one very talented, “gifted” person in our lives who seems to not be doing anything with it. This quote is both a warning and a reassurance — irrespective of whether you’re naturally talented, hard work can get you to the other side.
Colonel Sanders
There’s nothing better than a Friday night KFC takeaway, and it’s all thanks to this man. After working several temporary jobs such as railroad fireman and streetcar conductor, Sanders developed an interest in entrepreneurship. Beginning what would be a long and strenuous journey, he began selling fried chicken from a roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky — a restaurant that, a few later, would get tragically engulfed in its own flames.
What would it feel like to see your own restaurant getting burned down?
There’s no question about this man’s relentless perseverance, which is evident from this very famous quote,
“I’ve only had two rules: Do all you can and do it the best you can. It’s the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.”
Indeed, when we do something simply for the sake of it, we’re fooling no one but ourselves. At the end of the day, if we want the satisfaction of knowing that we tried our best, we must also put in our best.
Walt Disney
From kids to adults, theme parks to theatres, Disney has become one of the most well-known companies in the entire world. Their beginning, however, was very humble.
When Walt Disney created his first animation studio (The Laugh-O-Gram Studio), it eventually went bankrupt. His first fictional character was stolen from him by his distributor, making him lose the right to own the character. In a similar fashion, Walt Disney lost the rights to the Mickey Mouse character’s original design.
Sure, life is unfair. But if Walt Disney had held onto that thought only to give up his dream, the entertainment industry would be very different today. He truly manifested one of his most popular quotes,
“The difference in winning and losing is most often not quitting.”
The list can go on, but at the end of the day, information is of no use if it fails to become knowledge through implementation.
The moment we start learning from others’ experiences, transform our mindsets into growth mode, and steer our efforts in the right direction, is the moment we’ll have embarked on the road to lifelong success and satisfaction.
Thanks for reading
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