“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
– Woody Allen
The great comedian and filmmaker quoted above is hardly known as a success coach, but his seven words speak volumes for creating achievements and breakthroughs in life. Vince Lombardi, who guided the Green Bay Packers to wins in the first two Super Bowls, was a Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach famous for saying, “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” Consider the persistence in some of the following immortals who wouldn’t have been anything like immortal had they given up early on.
A Seattle-born college dropout was co-owner of a business called Traf-O-Data that was an utter failure. But he had a passion for programming computers and kept at it. By the age of 19, he co-founded a company called Microsoft. In 12 years, the man – Bill Gates – had become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
Twice rejected by USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, a young would-be California filmmaker, born in an orthodox Jewish family, didn’t give up on the idea of one day becoming a movie director. You might have seen one of his motion pictures that would eventually gross in excess of $9 billion. By the way, USC would wind up building a film school and naming it in honor of their three-time Oscar-winning rejected applicant named Steven Spielberg.
Teachers of a student in New Jersey told the boy that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” The child kept tinkering with trying to invent things, despite significant hearing loss, and wound up filing nearly 1,100 U.S. patents. These include the phonograph (that others could hear better than him), motion pictures, and the electric light bulb, among many others. His name was Thomas Edison.
The Oakland Athletics were being trounced 12-2 by the Minnesota Twins as they came to bat in the bottom of the third inning. But they didn’t give up. By the time the bottom of the ninth came about, they didn’t even need to come to bat; as they came from behind to win, 14-13.
Paul Arizin failed to make his high school basketball team, never received a scholarship to play for Villanova University, but didn’t hang his head and sulk off. He made the team as a sophomore walk-on. In his junior year, he scored 85 points in one game, and the following year, he became the 1950 College Player of the Year. He led the National Basketball Association in scoring in 1952 and 1957, played in All-Star games 10 times, and was elected to the Naismith Memorial basketball Hall of Fame.
I love to do crossword puzzles, enjoying the challenges that come with completing the New York Times’ puzzle every day. I usually complete the daily puzzles in half an hour on Monday and Tuesday – it gets progressively harder as the week unfolds – but one Sunday, I just couldn’t finish it. Day after day, I just couldn’t penetrate the mystery of some of those clues. But I kept at it. Day by day, one clue after another surrendered its secret to me. By Friday, it was completed and correct. I tell you this story because five days before I never thought I could get too far with this puzzle. But challenges have a way of being overtaken by the power of persistence.
I tell you this story because there are challenges in your life that seem hard to overcome but, with persistence and commitment, it’s amazing how far you can go. The Universe likes to see your persistence, to see what you’re made of. It will often give you tests to see if you’re serious, or if you’ll just give up and go home. When it sees your seriousness of purpose, your unwillingness to quit, it surrenders its secrets to you in much the same way that that Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle surrendered its secrets to me, as well.
So look at the difficulties that you face. What are the things that stop you? What are the things in your life that you think you cannot do, the things that you think are impossible to achieve? Tackle them and stay at it… you’ll be amazed at how successful you can be.