Education was not the key factor because high-school dropouts were running companies, while some MBAs were slamming into dead ends. Experience? Those at the top should have been older, and that wasn't the case. Technical skills, social skills and dozens of other career-related variables were examined. Those factors didn't explain why.
What is the quality that distinguished those who made it from those who did not?
Perseverance.
Every person will face adversity. How you meet it, what you make
of it, what you allow it to take from you and give to you are
determined by your mental habits.
You can train your mind to face life's toughest challenges. It's
an important quality to develop before you actually need it.
Adversity can be a positive thing, although it doesn't feel like
it when we are facing it. Adversity is what defines us.
It is easy to have a great attitude, a strong work ethic and a
positive outlook when things are going great. How do we stand up
during tough times?
Consider these famous people who faced difficulties in their
lives:
• When Bob Dylan performed at a high-school talent show,
classmates booed him off the stage.
• Walt Disney went bankrupt, suffered a nervous breakdown and
still made it to the top of the mountain.
• Martin Luther translated the Bible while enduring confinement
in the Castle of Wartburg.
• Dante wrote Divine Comedy while under a sentence of death and
during 20 years in exile.
• Helen Keller was not able to hear or see during her long life,
yet she became a famous author and worldwide celebrity for her
charm and wisdom.
We must push through the adversity we face. If we don't, we will
be poorly prepared for winning. People are successful because
they face adversity head-on to gain strength and skill. They
don't take the path of least resistance.
President Abraham Lincoln said, "My great concern is not whether
you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
Few people failed in early life as much as Lincoln, yet he is
regarded as one of our greatest presidents.
When you get discouraged, when you seem unable to make it, you
cannot do without one thing. It is that priceless ingredient of
success called relentless effort. Success cannot be achieved
without experiencing adversity.
An Asian proverb advises, "When fate throws a dagger at you,
there are only two ways to catch it, either by the blade or by
the handle."
Once, an old farmer who had suffered through a lifetime of
troubles and afflictions would have leveled an ordinary mortal.
Through it all, he never lost his sense of humor.
"How have you managed to keep so happy and serene?" a friend
asked.
"It ain't hard," the old fellow said. "I've just learned to
cooperate with the inevitable."
"Cooperating with the inevitable" enables us to catch adversity
by the handle, thereby using it as the tool that it was intended
to be.
Mackay's Moral: Adversity causes some people to break and others
to break records.
