Success is NOT Supposed to be Quick!

No one succeeds without effort… Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.

Ramana Maharshi

There is a reason why you have to wait for success! You need to be tested, and you also need to know within yourself that this is what you want to do!

There is no point pitying those who are trying to make it, that is their path. They must go through it. For a second consider:

A musician…

They begin to sing, write or play music and all to themselves and family. No one is listening, no one cares except their family – and sometimes even they don’t care! Days, months and years pass and nothing happens. Just themselves and their determination to follow that dream.

There is a reason…

They are learning! They are learning to cope, They are training to be the best, They are focussing when there are other distractions to pull them away from your goal. This is all just preparation for what is to come.

There are many quotes on the topic of perseverance and success. Some begin with the simple truth that in order to succeed you need to begin, others discuss the importance of trying over and over again. I want to address a different angle… TIME!

When seeing how some performers appear out of nowhere and become big over night, or when you see the likes of Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg in charge of huge corporate bodies, know that this didn’t just happen one day! There was a steady persistence to it all.

Gaining success requires you to climb lots of different mountains, to learn plenty of new approaches, to weather the storms and face people in many different facets. It is not the end goal that is to be savoured but the journey which one is on.

Imagine for just a split second that you have been given the keys to run a multinational conglomerate, or that you are the lead singing in a band touring the world, how would you cope? Who would you turn to? Where would you gain your knowledge to continue to succeed?

The pressure alone would crush you, and yet for many we want this end goal. To be the one in the ripped jeans or designer suit running the big enterprises of the world.

Success takes time because it is all about learning the ropes. One rung at a time. There is no shortcut, you need to go through each obstacle and climb each mountain.

Listening to a podcast yesterday, this became even more apparent to me. The interviewer was questioning a comedian about their success, and their response was that they were just the average guy that persevered. That they continued where others had given up. That they put more work into achieving that goal than anyone else they knew.

The result was a slightly aggressive tone to their voice, which even the interviewer picked up. He asks, “You say that proudly because you put the hours in…” He replies, “Yes, it has to be the absolute main focus of your life, for many years, to the exclusion of all else…you work on it…”

He goes on to say how others more talented than him are no longer comedians and that he is angry because they didn’t try hard enough. Wasting his time asking for help and contacts only to give up!

So hungry was the comedian to persevere and achieve his goal that he put the hours in, he slept in hovels, driven up and down the country, worked tirelessly at home to the small hours only to get up early and write again. He had researched, tried out jokes, tested his work, performed to test audiences and been heckeled!

He had even been so despondent on stage, boo’ed and failed until he found a way to succeed. He had made it, and all his addoring fans in the crowd who were there to see him were given the same message – you want this, you have to work hard for it.

Success is not an overnight event – it is slowly built, slowly moulded by sheer work and effort on behalf of every person in the world.

You could say some get a foot up, that’s an excuse for your lack of effort. You may say that you didn’t have the tools available, no one does, we gain them as we walk through this life. The difficulty for you and I is to gain those skills so you can survive the quiet time.

The obstacles are there for you to focus, for you to hone a skill, for you to believe you can do it, and with each step a stronger belief builds inside you to continue on that path.

I write, ACT ANYWAY, to say that whatever you do, aim for the goal, look to the posts and ACT ANYWAY, to achieve what you have your sights set on. Small steps result in a journey – a journey of any length.

It may be to the end of your bed, but you may have an injured body and those steps to the end mean more to you than to me, those small steps could be up mount Kilimanjaro to see the blackness of the atmosphere and the towering peaks around you.

Take each step, learn everything you can along the way and above all PERSIST!