Yesterday a good friend of mine who started this whole personal development journey with me gave me a call and I started telling him about the frustrations that I’m experiencing in certain things that are going on in my life. I told him that things were not exactly the way I planned for them to be after business school and that living at my parents at age 31, hammering out blog posts, lingering in obscurity, having not gone on many dates in several months, and somewhat of a daily grand were not my idea of what a successful life looks like.
Then he said something to me that was actually quite profound and gave me an opportunity to share some of my guest posts from around the web this week with you. First off, you should know that I believe that persistent pays off. Second, when we look at successful people it’s really tempting to only see them where they are today, on top of the ivory tower or at the top of the mountain. We often forget about the struggles, uphill battles, and fights they persisted through to get to where they are today. Nobody showcases their struggle because that’s not what inspires people. But the fact is that and overnight sensation is rare and when it does happen, it’s like a one-hit wonder kind of like that band Modern English. I honestly can’t remember a single song those guys sang other than “I’ll melt with you” and even that was probably not an overnight sensation. The point that I’m trying to make is that we often tend to forget that that the path to accomplishment happens one brick at at time.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Yup, persistence is a very important factor. But then, i think so are a couple of other things like planning, using the right tools and adapting. Success (in personal development included) is a complex equation and it’s important to get all the variables right or close to it.
All the best,
Eduard
Personally, I think the story of the struggle that “successful people” go through is more inspiring than the success itself. It’s far too often that we ignore all the failures people experience before succeeding just once. That’s a shame.
@Eduard: I definitely think there’s something to be said for having the right tools. I think there’s so much personal development crap out there that we don’t really take time to narrow down what works for us and discard the rest.
@Kenji: It’s interesting that the struggle is inspirational. Yet, we don’t see that. What we see is the A-list bloggers and where they are at today. We see people at the top of the mountain but we don’t see the climb.
Srinivas,
Great point!
“Overnight success” requires years of dedication.
Srinivas, I agree with Boris, overnight success is many many nights at work when no-one is seeing.
Yes, one brick at a time. But soetimes the problem is, we don’t really know what we’re trying to build. Once you know – it’s all so much easier..
@Boris: Thanks for stopping by.
@Oscar: We definitely forget that about the work no one is seeing which is why I wanted to write this post.
@Mystic. Absolutely.
Srinivas, thanks for this post.
It’s easy to see someone’s ’success’ (the outcome) without seeing the long hard hours people have put into their passions. A great reminder that we build our own lives one brick at a time.
Very true… and and I think it’s important to remember that a lot of times too. While it can be extremely easy to get bogged down and constantly worry about the “right here and right nows” of life…. sometimes it’s the uphill battles that define us more than anything. Interesting site you have here though; looks of good, well written material.
Looking at successful people, we only see the external manifestation. But if we take the time to understand the struggle they have made we will see the secret. It is laying down the foundation one day at a time.
@Travis: I think it’s interesting because you have to find a balance between the living in the moment and working towards success. The thing I think to keep in mind is to have goals but be in the moment when are are working on them.
@Walter: It’s like a bank account where you invest over time. I think of it as compound interest. Every action you take is a deposit in your bank of success.