Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
~ Winston Churchill
Most people are afraid of success.
We look at the achievements of others with a mixture of awe and jealousy, and silently remark to ourselves how we are not capable of such things.
But we are. The majority of “successful” people out there haven’t done anything that you aren’t capable of. Usually, they have just two advantages over you:
- They are not afraid to succeed. They are not afraid to try (and fail) until they get to where they want to be.
- They believe in their potential. They believe in themselves, even in face of multiple failures.
Do you know why success is so intimidating to so many? Because they look at step 100 without considering the fact that there were 99 incremental steps leading up to it. As M J DeMarco says, they see the event, not the process.
Did you know the first ever item to be sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer? The vast majority of first-time business endeavors have humble beginnings. It doesn’t mean that they can’t turn into something huge.
Remember this – success is always forward-looking. Success doesn’t dwell on the past. Success is incremental. If your first step is small, it doesn’t mean that it won’t lead to huge strides in the future. The important thing is to just keep taking steps.
If you take time to examine the process of a “successful” person, you will suddenly realize how success is almost always preceded by a cumulative process of endeavor. Something that we are all capable of.
And that is why success shouldn’t be intimidating. It is just a process.
Image courtesy of Carlos Blanco