Yesterday I listened to interviews of Seth Godin and Brian Scudamore. Brian now has five companies, valued at $25 million, with a goal of expanding to ten companies. When he was eight years into his first company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? he was at about a million dollars in revenue.
But before that, he failed. A lot. He also mentioned, he was fired from every job had ever held.
Seth Godin built Yoodyne and sold it to Yahoo! for $30 million. Seth said for about eight years he was always two weeks away from bankruptcy. Eight years is a long time to be on the brink of failure.
These are people whom, at a glance, folks tend to think, wow, that’s guy’s got it made, he is a success story. But look a little deeper, and we see that success is built on a mountain of failure, of struggle and adversity.
Maybe, just maybe, the difference between those who have “made it” and those who never do, sometimes is the difference between perseverance and giving up. Perhaps it is the difference between struggling and accepting whatever comes easily. And perhaps, it is the difference between focusing on the long vision and moving towards the horizon step by step, and focusing on the barrier in front of our faces and being turned away by it.
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