How to be Successful in Life : Think Different and Keep Pushing On
By Anubhav Srivastava ( Register for his Workshop – Build Super Confidence For Super Success!)
1) Practise Persistence – In a Smart Way
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Alva Edison
Most people never set goals, even if they do they follow through half heartedly and lose hope at the first sign of defeat. Creating a plan is no big deal, executing it is. When the would be successful people set goals, they make a commitment to themselves that they will reach their destination no matter what happens. Life does not always give you what you want immediately, however fierce passion combined with a never say die attitude will guarantee eventual success.
I am sure you have heard about how Edison failed more than 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb. Now 10,000 might just be a figure that Edison stated figuratively but there is little denying the fact that the actual number was probably very large too. If Edison could fail so many times and still eventually reach his goal, why make a few failures hold you down?
You have to prepare yourself for rejections just like you would expect them in your love life. Unless you are a very lucky individual or someone who has influential relatives, you shall be rejected over and over and over again in most endeavors of yours, regardless of your talent. The worst thing you can do is give unnecessary attention to these setbacks. Setbacks are a part of life and if you wish to progress in any field you better be prepared for lots of them. However, it is important to keep focusing on your goal instead of lamenting over temporary defeat.
Now when I say that you should be prepared for setbacks I am not saying that you should knock on doors and subconsciously believe that you are going to be rejected. This is the wrong kind of thinking! Every renewed effort needs to be supported with a conviction that this one would be THE meeting that would turn your life around. Undeniably, this maybe hard to do after experiencing repeated failures, but it is very important that you cultivate this habit. Unless and until you are convinced that you can make it happen you are never going to put in the necessary effort to make it a reality! Therefore always go in with the belief that this would be “THE MEETING.” If you fail, pretend as if it never happened and focus all your efforts on the next meeting.
2) Desire to be different but more importantly Dare to be different.
“The worst thing I can be is the same as everyone else. I hate that.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
Most achievers harbor a deep desire to be different from the rest. Being the same as everyone, doing the same things as everyone else, having the same limited vision as everyone simply does not appeal to them. They have an underlying need that pushes them to do things that set them apart from the rest.
Let me ask you a question? Are you content with leading an average life, doing the same 9 to 5 job as everyone else? People would usually say they are not, but the fact is that subconsciously most do not really care to be different from the rest. In fact, the average person is afraid of being different from the rest because he fears criticism from the society, which (not so surprisingly) largely consists of average people itself.
The would be achievers dare and desire to be different. They are willing to experiment with ideas that most people in the society would either dismiss or ridicule. One of the reasons that these people become so successful is that they apply new ideas during times when others are skeptical. This allows them successfully exploit the undervalued idea to reap large rewards before others start accepting its validity.
History is filled with such examples. One example that comes to my mind is the “Million Dollar Homepage.” Alex Tew, a 21 year old student from England needed to raise money for his college education. He decided to come up with an idea that most people would have considered worthless at the time. The homepage of the site consisted of 1 million pixels and he decided to sell advertising space on the page for $1 per pixel.
The novelty of the idea brought it much attention in terms of word of mouth and very soon several news organizations started picking the story up, which greatly increased the traffic on his site. This of course led to more people buying advertising space. Within 5 months of the launch, the site had fetch Alex $1,037,100 USD.
How would have you reacted if Alex Tew was a friend of yours and told you about this idea way before it was famous. If you would have dismissed the idea immediately, you know it’s time to change your way of thinking. Instead of focusing on all reasons why an idea will fail, focus on all the reasons why an idea will succeed. Exploiting untested ideas before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon is probably among the biggest reasons why some people become multi-millionaires while others don’t. These are the people who dared to be different…
Reflect on the advice my humble self I you.gave you. Great authors and successful people have mentioned all the things I talked repeatedly. Think over it and decide for yourself whether it would be useful to you. If you do feel that it could be useful, start implementing that mindset right now because doing so will only make you one step closer to success! Stay Tuned for Part Two of this Article!
About the Author
The author of this article, Anubhav Srivastava is an author, motivational speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields, who teach the viewers how they too can make all of their dreams come true. The movie itself has been seen on Youtube by close to 600,000 people. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.
Email Anubhav Srivastava at anubhav101@gmail.com. Facebook Profile: http://facebook.com/anubhav981
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