- May 24, 2024
Life is full of setbacks. Sometimes, you’ll give your best effort and still fall flat on your face. This is especially true in the entrepreneurial world, where many new businesses fail to make a profit. You might find yourself in a situation where you can’t get any investors for your brand. Or maybe you didn’t understand current workplace trends and as a consequence, high turnover brought your business crashing down.
Of course, challenges and difficulties can come from your personal life as well. Whether you’re facing struggles with personal finances or your dating life, the problems that come your way can feel overwhelming at times. So what do you do during these discouraging moments? You pick yourself up. You don’t give up on yourself — even if others have proven happy to do so. There are plenty of good reasons to keep trying.
Tony Robbins is quoted as saying “Leaders spend 5 percent of their time on the problem and 95 percent of their time on the solution.” Thomas Edison famously had over 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at creating the lightbulb before he finally achieved the workable solution.
Regardless of the problem you’re currently stuck on, the situation is not hopeless. Every problem you face — be it in your personal life or the business world — has a solution.
Rather than dwelling on the problem itself, focus your energy on finding a solution. This not only fosters a more proactive mindset, but it will help you find the energy to keep going until you achieve the desired result.
The road to success involves a lot of trial and error. The simple reality is that many of the most successful people in the world weren’t handed a great life on a silver platter. They were persistent and kept trying even when life got them down.
J.K. Rowling was a jobless single parent when she wrote Harry Potter. Albert Einstein failed his university entrance exam prior to becoming a Nobel Prize winning physicist. Abraham Lincoln had several failed election campaigns before becoming one of the United States’ most influential presidents.
Each of these people could have given up. But they kept trying — and that determination ultimately allowed them to achieve success.
“Don’t quit. Never give up trying to build the world you can see, even if others can’t see it. Listen to your drum and your drum only. It’s the one that makes the sweetest sound.” – Simon Sinek
It can be extremely discouraging when others have written you off as a lost cause. But this doesn’t mean you’re completely on your own.
As Robert Strzelecki, CEO of TenderHut, the fastest-growing international IT group in the world, explains, “Even after you’ve exhausted all the connections in your current network, that doesn’t mean there isn’t anyone out there who can help you. Whether it’s a support group to get through a personal struggle or a new business connection that will help you revive your startup, you just need to be willing to look outside your current circle and you’ll find others who can give you a boost.”
Professional networks or support groups can offer valuable insight from others facing similar problems to yours. Even online groups can provide much-needed support and advice. Sometimes, a fresh perspective from someone who isn’t as closely connected to you will provide the flash of insight you need to reach your goals. Better still, you might be able to provide similar help to someone else.
Not giving up on yourself won’t just make a difference in your own life — it could completely change things for others. Your big ideas could revolutionize an industry or help other people turn their lives around. You could even serve as an inspiration for others who learn from your success story and use it to get through their own dark times.
If you give up now, there’s no telling what the world could miss out on. Many people who have changed the world would never have made their impact if they’d chosen to give up after earlier failures. Staying true to your dreams could transform the world for the better — but only if you refuse to give up on yourself.
“Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill
If there’s one lesson to be learned from all this, it’s that your past never dictates your future. No matter how many times you have failed before, this is no guarantee that you can’t turn things around. The most meaningful successes in life are rarely easy. Every successful person was once a “wannabe.”
What made the difference was that these people learned to “fail forward.” They used past failures as learning experiences so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. As you stay focused on your goals and learn from your failures, you can use these valuable lessons to fine-tune your focus and propel you to future success.
Sometimes, it may seem like the only thing keeping you going is positive self-talk … But no matter how hard things get or how much others refuse to believe in you, you control your own destiny.
Always remember that you are the one who chooses how you will move on and keep trying. By refusing to give up on yourself and continuing to put forth your best effort, success will eventually come.