Software Engineering :: Career :: Job :: Search :: Training :: Cultivated Strategy #5: What Do Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey, & You Have In Common?
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Wil,
Quick - who is the first person you think of when I say "successful?"
I'll give you a second...
Got someone in mind? Good.
How did they become successful?
You're probably going to tell me that they created this, or they wrote that. For example, Steve Jobs became successful by creating Apple right? Jeff Bezos did so by creating Amazon, right? And Tim Ferriss wrote the 4 Hour Work Week. Not quite....
Most people who think about success suffer from what I like to call the Tip Of The Iceberg Syndrome.
What I mean by that is, most people tend to associate a person's success with the most recent venture that made that person widely successful. However, that venture is usually just the tip of the iceberg that we see.
What we don't see is the massive amount of effort, wrong turns, and mistakes those people made before that venture was created - or, the massive part of the iceberg beneath the water:
90% of success is what people don't see! Credit to Sylvia Duckworth for the illustration.
Let me tell you a little story about someone that you, and everybody around you, knows:
He was born in Maine to a single working mother. His father left the family when he was still a toddler.
For 20+ years, he struggled to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. His interest in writing finally sparked his decision to take a job as an English teacher where he made a whopping $6,400 / year. After marrying his wife in 1971, they moved into a trailer and took on additional jobs to make ends meet while he continued to write.
A few of his pieces were picked up by men's publications like Playboy, but didn't lead to any real opportunities or success.
He kept writing for another two more years. He wrote three novels, but was never able to get one published.
In 1973, he tried again. He sent a short story he'd written to 30 publishers, hoping for a bite.
All 30 publishers rejected it.
Dejected, he threw the pages in the trash...where his wife found and read them.
She urged him to try one more time.
Turns out the 31st time was the charm.
Carrie by Stephen King was published on April 5, 1974 and went on to sell 30,000 copies in its first run. That sparked a career that has resulted in 85+ books with 350 million copies sold and a net worth of $500 million.
We all know that Stephen became successful from his books - this is the tip of the iceberg.
You probably didn't know that he spent years living in a trailer, working multiple jobs, dealing with rejection after rejection. This is the rest of the iceberg and the foundation on which the tip rests. Remember this story as you start your own journey to success.
You will be told "no", you will be called "crazy", and you will want to give up.
When these thoughts enter your head, remember that the key to success is about consistency and the will to push on regardless of what happened yesterday.
If you do that, you will beat out any amount of talent, intelligence, or wit.
Now, who's ready to get started?
Be well, Austin