One Key Trait All Truly Successful People Have
True achievers persist. They persevere. They know where they want to go and don’t stop after every setback.
You will not be an overnight success. Sorry to break the news to you, but honestly, no one ever is. For every superstar who seemed to come from nowhere and reach the top in their field, there are years of struggle and failure.
We all struggle. We all fail. What makes true superstars — true achievers — different is how they respond to that struggle and failure.
True achievers, truly great people, persist. They persevere, and they push on. They keep going despite the setbacks. They know where they want to go and don’t stop after every setback and every obstacle.
Some of sports’ greatest athletes and coaches have reached the top — not by sheer athletic ability or intelligence — but with persistence and getting better and better each day and each year. If we emulate this trait, we can succeed at the highest levels of what we do.
Someday, you’re going to win a championship.
“Commitment is all about risk: the payoff is either heartbreak or exhilaration. But it’s also about tedium, the willingness to persevere through problems without quitting and, more important, without demoralization.”
– Pat Summitt, former University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach, winner of eight NCAA national championships and more victories than any women’s basketball coach ever
Pat Summitt might be the greatest women’s basketball coach who has ever lived. Her Tennessee Volunteers teams won eight NCAA national championships during her 38-year coaching career. Her 1098 victories are the most of any women’s basketball coach ever.
While most basketball fans remember her remarkable success, few recognize her arduous journey.
Summitt never set out to be a coach at all. She was a standout player, even playing on the Olympic silver medal-winning U.S. Women’s National Team in 1976. She went to the University of Tennessee to become a graduate assistant for the team. When the Volunteers’ coach suddenly resigned, Summitt became head coach.
Women’s college basketball was only developing as Summitt took over, so she drove the players in the team van to games. She washed her players’ uniforms.
Summitt pushed her teams hard. She was well known for making her players practice in the middle the night after trips home from road games if they didn’t put in enough effort during the contest. But that drive didn’t translate to instant success.
Pat Summitt guided her Lady Vols teams to the NCAA Final Four five times in her first 12 years as head coach. Five times in a seven-year period, Summitt got the team close to a national championship. But in all five trips to the Final Four, they lost.
She took each loss hard. She and her players would come so close, only to fall short in the semifinal or final game. She would struggle to sleep and eat for days after the loss. She blamed herself. She searched for ideas of what she could have done differently.
After days of sulking and searching for answers, Pat Summitt gritted her teeth and said, “Someday, we’re going to win a championship.”
Each time, Summitt and her Lady Vols teams persevered. They came back and worked harder. They did the drills and endured the practices, day after day.
They transformed their mentality from one of believing they would never win to one of believing you could never count them out.
In her 13th season as Tennessee’s women’s basketball coach, Pat Summitt guided her players to the school’s first NCAA national championship.
The road to real achievement takes time.
“Be persistent. Be determined. Be tenacious. Be completely determined to reach your goal. That’s intentness.”
– John Wooden, head coach of the UCLA basketball team, winner of 10 national championships in a 12-year period, and seven-time national coach of the year
In much the same way, John Wooden, regarded by most people as the greatest college basketball coach ever — and possibly the greatest coach ever in any sport — struggled.
Wooden became head coach of the UCLA Bruins in 1948. His teams worked hard. In every practice and every game, his players gave their best. Wooden pushed his team to get better every day, every week, every season.
“The road to real achievement takes time, a long time, but you do not give up. You may have setbacks. You may have to start over. You may have to change your method. You may have to go around, or over, or under. You may have to back up and get another start. But you do not quit. You stay the course.”
– John Wooden
For 14 years, Wooden’s UCLA teams worked hard but failed to win a national championship. In the 15th year, they finally reached the top, beating Duke to win the school’s first national championship in basketball. In Wooden’s 16th season, UCLA won a second national title. They won eight more over the next 10 years.
Someone has to be the last person standing.
“Someone has to be the last one standing, the last lone figure at day’s end.”
– Jerry West, 14-time NBA All-Star, an NBA World Champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, team executive and the player whose silhouette is incorporated into the NBA logo
It’s just as important for individuals to be persistent as it is for teams. If you want to reach the top of the mountain — the peak of whatever field you’re in — you have to push forward no matter how many times you fail.
Jerry West is an icon of basketball. His silhouette is part of the NBA logo, in fact.
As the general manager of the Lakers, West managed to bring both Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to Los Angeles, ushering in a decade of dominance and many championships.
As a player, West was selected as an All-Star 14 times. He is the only player voted Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals despite playing for the losing team.
West and the Lakers made the NBA Finals nine times during his playing career, but they lost eight of those nine times they reached the Finals. Six of those losses came at the hands of the legendary Boston Celtics and superstar Bill Russell. But West and the Lakers never gave up. West’s Lakers finally won the NBA championship in 1972.
West claims that one of his greatest attributes is his persistence. It’s something he has possessed since childhood.
He recalls going fishing as a child. If someone told him the fish weren’t biting that day, he became more determined than ever to catch a fish — and to catch the biggest one in the river. He spent hours specially preparing dough balls to use as bait and sprinkling them carefully with cinnamon.
He wouldn’t leave the river that day until he had caught a fish.
Wait for your opportunity and be ready when it comes.
“You have to be patient. You have to work harder than the others. You have to try everything over a longer period. And then you have a big chance. No guarantee, but a big chance.”
– Jürgen Klopp, winner of the Champions League as manager of Liverpool Football Club and two-time Bundesliga champion
Often perseverance entails patiently waiting for your opportunity — and being ready when it comes.
Before winning five national championships as head coach of the University of Alabama, Nick Saban guided LSU to a national championship in 2003. His star running back on that team was Justin Vincent.
Vincent wasn’t destined for greatness the moment he stepped on the field at LSU. In fact, he didn’t even start out as running back. He came to LSU as a defensive back. After eight days of spring practice in 2003, Saban and the Tigers coaches switched him to running back.
Vincent entered the 2003 season behind two veteran running backs and two other freshman running backs on the depth chart. But he never complained. He never got frustrated. He worked hard in practice and in the weight room even though he didn’t know if he would ever play.
By the fifth game of that championship season, LSU’s top two running backs suffered injuries. Justin Vincent was ready for his opportunity, and he made the most of it.
His perseverance, hard work and positive attitude helped him lead LSU to a national championship. He was named Most Valuable Player in both the SEC championship game and BCS national championship game.
Look at setbacks as opportunities, not failures.
“Don’t ever give up. Be persistent, be committed, be positive, and learn from every failing. Your perseverance will reward you someday.”
– Nick Saban, Alabama head football coach, winner of six NCAA national championships, tied for the most all-time in the modern era
Success often requires you to look at setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow, not as failures. You can’t look at an instance where you failed to achieve a goal as a failure and then quit. You have to recognize that it’s a necessary step on the path toward improvement.
Just look at the greatest basketball player ever — and maybe the greatest athlete ever — Michael Jordan. Jordan won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls. In so many of the games in those championship seasons, Michael hit shots to win the game.
Most people don’t realize Jordan missed over 12,000 shots — 12,192, in fact — during his career. But each time he missed, he kept shooting. He didn’t stop. He worked on his shooting and practiced to get better. He was never afraid to miss a shot. He always wanted to take the final shot. And far more often than not, he hit it.
Keep coming back to the plate.
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
– Samuel Beckett, novelist, playwright, short story writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Actor Liam Neeson has made over 70 movies in his career. Despite earning Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and starring in films that have grossed over $5 billion dollars worldwide, his road to stardom has been filled with stops and starts.
Neeson focused on getting better every day. Even if he didn’t perform as well as he should have, he never stopped trying to do better the next time.
“You’ve come offstage, you’ve done a lousy performance for whatever reason, and you get a chance to go onstage the next night and the night after that for four or five months. You make it better, but you have to be there. You have to come back to the plate again. You have to keep always coming to the plate.”
– Liam Neeson
How can you be better today than you were yesterday?
“Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as it is concentration and perseverance.”
– Vince Lombardi, head coach of the Green Bay Packers and winner of five NFL Championships, including the first two Super Bowls
Perhaps the greatest football coach of all-time — after whom the Super Bowl trophy is named — is Vince Lombardi. Everything in Lombardi’s career boiled down to one question.
How could he make his team better today than it was yesterday?
Everything his Green Bay Packers team did on the field, in the locker room and everywhere was done to get just a little bit better each day.
Ask yourself that same question. How can you be better today than you were yesterday?
Where can you get a little bit better? Can you study longer or harder in math or science today than you did yesterday? Can you make one more sales call? Can you work just one percent harder on your sales presentation so you can knock it out of the park?
Of course you can.
Your perseverance will reward you one day.
“Perseverance and adversity go hand in hand. You persevere when you can look adversity in the eye and see it as a challenge. To truly be successful, individuals and organizations must be able to overcome adversity. Perseverance gives you the drive to do it; your actions give you the ability to do it.”
– Nick Saban
Success in work and life isn’t about natural talent. It isn’t about being handed opportunities right from the start. It’s about focus, concentration, persistence, determination, hard work and perseverance.
Maybe you won’t win an award or reach the top of your company, or the top of your industry, in the first five years out of school. Maybe you won’t get there in the first 10 years of your career.
But keep at it. Work harder. Figure out where you can improve. Don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Believe in yourself.
Be persistent.
Keep going.
Your perseverance will ultimately reward you one day.
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