Draw Inspiration From Never-Give-Up Success Stories

(Photo Credit: mshades on Flickr)

Half a year has already passed and you are nowhere near achieving your goals. To give up now or not to? This is a question that has been occupying your mind lately. You are in obvious pain; lamenting over your lack of success, despite having put in late nights and all. The current situation does not look healthy: You have got bills to pay and your bank account is depleting. Your health is in jeopardy. And your family extremely unhappy.

Perhaps it is that you have set out on a journey to becoming your own boss. At the very start, you have decided that enough is enough. Egged on the numerous advice by many personal development sites (perhaps including mine) out there to follow your dreams, you have handed in your resignation letter to that horrible ex-boss. So you have gone on to setting up a business and possibly an internet one, to boot. You dreamed of conquering the world with the aid of a keyboard and mouse.

Not just a business venture, wanting to quit can also apply to any situation. It may be a fitness regime or a project that you’ve set your sights on. The stakes are high; your ego is at stake. Damn it…you need to prove that you can succeed, at all costs…to shut your critics up! Alas…you have not quite forseen the numerous challenges and difficulties strewn onto your path.

Well, do not quit just yet. If you are not in that dire situation of getting your house possessed by the bank, being declared bankrupt, unable to pay for milk powder for your baby or facing some real calamity yet, then I’d like to share with you some Never-Give-Up stories. These stories have often helped inspire me stay the course. Pondering over them takes away my attention from focusing too much on my everyday difficulties. I gain a “bird’s eye” view on my whole journey. The stories give me hope, often keeping me afloat (see above photo illustration).

1. Three Feet from Gold in Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.

“Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.”
— Unknown

A man was caught by the “gold rush” idea and went west to dig. After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. However he needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. So together with some friends and relatives, he raised enough money to buy the machinery.

The first car of ore brought the group some money. But he needed a few more cars in order to clear his debts and to make a killing in profits. So they continued drilling.

But to their dismay, they could not find any more ore. Finally, after trying very hard, they decided to quit. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars.

The junk man called in a mining engineer to do a review. The engineer’s calculations showed that the vein of ore could be found just three feet from where the group had stopped drilling. And that was exactly where it was found! The junk man became a millionaire overnight, because he was wise enough to seek expert counsel.

Question Nugget: Is success just round the corner? If you give up too soon, you know you will never find the success that you have been hankering for.

2. The Stockdale Paradox

In the best-selling book Good to Great by Jim Collins, the research showed that every good-to-great company faced significant adversity along the way to greatness. In every case, the management team responded with a powerful psychological duality. On one hand, they accepted the brutal facts of reality. On the other hand, they maintained an unwavering faith in the endgame, and a commitment to prevail as a great company despite the brutal facts.

The name belongs to Admiral Jim Stockdale. He was the highest ranking US military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Although he was tortured over 20 times during his 8-year imprisonment, he lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date or certainty when he would see his family again. During his imprisonment, he shouldered the burden of command, doing what he could to create conditions that would increase the survival for his men, while fighting an internal war against his captors and their attempts to use the prisoners for propaganda. He was finally released and became the first three-star officer in the history of navy to wear both aviator wings and the Congressional Medal of Honor.

“I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”

What was ironical, he revealed, was that the “optimists” were the ones who did not survive. They were the ones who would say that they’d be out by Christmas. And Christmas would come and would go. Then, they’d say that they’d be out by Easter. And Easter would come by, then Thanksgiving and so on. They died broken hearted.

General Stockdale said in an interview with Jim Collins, who subsequently named the duality as the Stockdale Paradox…

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Question Nuggets: What separates the great from the rest, is not just the dreams they have but also in how they deal with the inevitable difficulties in life. Do you display tenacity and strength or are you already in defeat mentally, as you face your current difficulties? Getting to know The Stockdale Paradox can help you emerge from difficulties, in a position of greater strength. It helps you strip away the noise and clutter, that derail you from staying the course.

3. The Story of Thomas Edison

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
— Thomas A. Edison

Perhaps, the greatest teacher of all in never-to-give-up, is Thomas Edison. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t “invent” the lightbulb, but rather he improved upon a 50-year-old idea. Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity. Despite more than 10,000 failures, he finally made his dream into a physical reality. He succeeded not only in inventing an incandescent electric light, but also an electric lighting system that was practical, safe, and economical.

Thomas Edison is considered by many to be one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. His motto for success has always been one of hard work and determination.

Questions Nugget: Feel like giving up? Ask yourself these questions: Have you put your very best in effort? Is it just a temporary setback that you are facing? Are there more ways that one in dealing with your current perceived problems?

Many who have succeeded also shared similar findings as Thomas Edison….

“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong”
— Benjamin Franklin (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”
— C.S. Lewis (British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)

“Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.”
— Chinese Proverbs quotes

“An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.”
— Charles F. Kettering (American engineer, inventor of the electric starter, 1876-1958)

Draw Hope and Inspiration From Success Stories
There are many success stories that you can draw inspiration and strength from. Many of the greatest people were also born disadvantaged. Consider Hellen Keller, who was deaf, dumb and blind, Beethoven who was deaf and John Milton who was blind.

In this century alone, you can also benefit from stories of those who went from bankruptcy to great wealth: Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump, just to name a few. The movie on the left is also a highly inspirational one!

If you decide to stick on (and I hope you do, unless you are really in dire straits), then do your best to survive the hard times. Should the going get tough, turn to inspirational stories, like the reminders from this post, to help keep your dreams alive! Success may just be not too far off – Do Not Give Up Just Yet!

Popularity: 11% [?]