Why do only certain people succeed while others don’t? Is it because they got lucky? Is it because they came from money? Or is it something else? How does true grit create success?
I think all of these questions play a role in someone’s success. I was listening to a podcast the other day that was discussing how our society thinks of this term “success.”
They had people defining it by saying the obvious “Success is a term that you define yourself it isn’t monetary”. Blah, blah, blah – but then they had a researcher who has studied and published papers on people who have reached success and what makes them different.
People of all kinds – billionaires of tech companies, managers of hospitals, political figures, and a couple of others.
They all had one thing in common… true grit.
I like to define grit as mental fortitude because it basically comes down to the idea that you can with stand anything that comes at you.
True Grit & Mental Fortitude
The researcher concluded a couple of things but one stuck out because I run into it almost on a DAILY basis and that is true grit.
In every case the super successful had a commonality. They each told a story about how people thought they were crazy or their ideas made no sense and would never be successful. They built walls within their minds that allowed them to persevere through all the low points in life.
For me, almost every day someone tells me I can’t do something in which I say, “Watch me.” These people will never go away and too often they are the closest ones to you.
They will try and poke holes and create doubt, but understand with every innovation comes doubt.
We as entrepreneurs are thinking in ways the average person cannot comprehend because they have accepted the way the world works and choose not to question it. We question everything.
Surrounding Yourself With Others
Building mental fortitude takes effort and often times leads to surrounding yourself with new people.
Don’t be afraid to take a leap on yourself even if people around you think it’s crazy. Those sometimes are the best ideas!
And if that’s the case please call me so we can make a pile of cash! Stay tuned for my next post where I talk about creating your own opportunity. Is opportunity just dumb luck? Or can you create it?
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This article first appeared on Change With Us.
