Once upon a time, my boss once asked me this question, “if a person wants to become a successful entrepreneur, who do you think is the right person, from whom he should take advice”?
My answer after a bit of thinking was, “I guess from a successful entrepreneur himself.”
That one incident in my life has given me a lot of learning. Let me share it with you in the form of a story.
This story is about a young boy introduced to a sport at a very young age and fell in love with it. It became his dream to represent his state in that sport and master the game.
But we all know, not all dreams turn into reality and often leave us with agony and despair. Was the boy destined for the same fate?
No!
On the path of the young man's journey, he would encounter more failures than successes. And every failure would check his grit and determination to pursue what he truly desired.
This young boy was denied his place in the university team to play the game that he had dreamt of throughout his childhood by stating that he was too short in height to play at that level.
That first rejection made the boy feel bad, but he promised himself that he would practice and beat all odds of failure. From a young age, he has understood the lesson that failure doesn’t define a person, but the power to get up and try again does.
His words to his coach were, “I’m going to show you; nobody will ever work as hard as I work.”
And he kept his promise.
This young man’s relentlessness and never-give-up attitude are what made him the greatest basketball player of all time.
This man is recognized throughout the world for the below words.
"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
This little young man was no other than legendary basketball player Michael Jorden.
Who said, “I can accept failure; everyone fails at something, But I can’t accept not trying.”
Going back to the point where we started this article, if you want to master something, the best person to learn it from is someone who has done it himself.
So, what are the characteristic traits of successful people that we can learn from Mr. Jorden?
Here is the list-
1. All successful people master one skill (only one skill – but to the best of their ability), it could be business skills, dancing, sports, art anything but mastery in one skill gives them their identity and create their success.
2. Discipline – successful people value every second of their day and utilize it to get closer to their dreams and follow a routine to remain committed no matter what.
3. They focus on work and not on the reward - believe it or not, money, name, fame or any other kind of reward that successful people make comes to them as a by-product of their efforts which they put for years altogether.
4. Accepting failures and continuing the journey till the goal is achieved. Successful people accept the failures, learn from them but never give up on their dreams.
5. Try new things- all successful people take risks and try new things in life until they find that one thing about which they feel insanely passionate and dedicate their all to that one dream.
6. Last, all successful people believe in listening to their hearts. They leap of faith in the journey guided by their heart irrespective of all the fear, doubts, or insecurities that society, family, or friends try to show them.
I can best sum up the learnings of this article in the words of Winston Churchill "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.".
So, continue to move ahead.
You have my best wishes.
You must be logged in to post a comment.