When it’s time to quit, that’s the time to carry on.
You’ve given it all it takes; now give it some more.
If you’re trying to achieve something spectacular or out of the ordinary, you are guaranteed to find opposition or difference of opinion from everyone around you. The whole world is built on expectations and definitions of what ‘normal’ is. Normal is going to school to be taught exactly the same thing that everyone else in the country is being taught, to then moving onto further education to eventually trying to get a job in a field that you have no experience in. If you’re one of the lucky ones and you land a job in a field you like you work your way up and at 50 you’re comfortably married, go on a holiday once a year, drive a nice(ish) car and have grown up kids. If you weren’t so lucky you join the second group of people who's education didn’t do them much good and you’ve been in the same office job all your life. You save every year to try and get a holiday with whatever you have left from the burden of a mortgage over your families head and your life pretty much consists of going to work, eating and sleeping.
Then there’s the group of people who aren’t normal. You can call them the entrepreneurs, the go-getters, the dreamers, the ‘crazy ones’. The fact that they don’t want to be struggling their whole life is what makes them crazy; but isn’t that a normal dream to have? The majority of society sees the Branson’s, Zuckerburg’s, Bill Gates’ & Steve Jobs’ as ‘lucky’. Why are we not brought up to believe that if we work hard enough we can be really successful? Instead we’re taught about these entrepreneurs or inventors who have changed the world as if they aren’t human. We’re taught about their stories as if we couldn’t do it. It is funny though as the one common factor in the super successful and wealthy is that they all come from nothing. They didn’t have loads of money, their parents weren’t rich and they all built their empires from an idea. An idea that they believed could improve lives and change the world.
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie
To be successful you have to believe in what you are doing. I dropped out of school at 17 so there is no other option other than for me to succeed. If I don’t make this work, I’m f**ked. I’m 21 and although I haven’t made a million like I thought I would have at the time I know I’m getting somewhere. I’m growing, learning who I am, I’ve made new powerful contacts. As the years have gone on more of the people closest to me have started to lose faith. They’ve gone from fully supporting me and encouraging me to leave education to doubting everything that I do and suggesting me applying for a 9-5. A 9-5 office job would be the easiest thing I could do right now to get out of this. From the experience I’ve gained in the last 3 years I know I would have no issue in getting a ‘normal’ job but that’s completely why that is not the thing to do. It’s the hardest it’s ever been right now to explain to anyone why I’m doing what I’m doing. That’s how you know you’re getting somewhere because it doesn’t make sense. You can’t change the world without doing something different.
Nothing comes easy and if you want to be successful you have to give it everything it takes. There will always be times where you will question certain decisions you might have made. Stop it. You’ve made them and it’s too late to look back now. Never forget what made you so hungry and driven in the first place. Why should you accept failure and join the crowd? There is no better time than now to build something of your own. Start with a small idea and build on it. Stay focused and it will grow with you.
follow me on twitter: @hannanmalik
“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”
