Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine, has a weekly newsletter called Recomendo. This week he wrote, “Most overnight successes take at least 5 years. As Dave Perell notes in his newsletter Monday Musings, ‘[Marques Brownlee] is one of the most popular technology-focused YouTubers in the world. As I write this, he has 13.6 million subscribers and his videos have been watched 2.4 billion times. But when he recorded his 100th video, he only had 74 subscribers.’ In other words, he made and posted his first hundred videos with the tiniest possible audience. To make something great, keep showing up! As Perell noted in another of his issues: ‘If you create something weekly for 2 years, you will earn an audience.’ That is, make 100 creations before you have a big audience. Every ‘overnight’ success I’ve ever seen was preceded by years of relentless, and sometimes unappreciated, hard work.” Continue reading
Tag: Success (Page 1 of 2)
A study was recently published by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management that reminds us what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
The study looked at scientists who were applying for research grants for their papers. They followed those who just made the cut and those who just missed it.
Ten years later, the scientists who just missed the cut were 6.1% more likely to have published a hit paper.
Which means the scientists who were rejected by the process were more likely to succeed.
This was the group that was turned down and did not get the grant money to continue their research but never stopped their quest to find answers and share them.
What didn’t kill them made them stronger.
By embracing failure, taking the lesson and persevering, they were more likely to succeed.
As Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
What is something we can continue to work on even though we’ve been rejected? What can we learn from the process and how can that help us grow?
Rejection is redirection. Now that we know the new path we should be following we must start walking.
Tim Ferriss was an early investor in Twitter, Uber, Facebook and others. He has written many best-selling books including The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and Tools of Titans. He has a successful podcast where he interviews chess prodigies, actors, athletes, hedge fund managers, military leaders and entrepreneurs to dissect excellence and give listeners the inspiration to dream big and make things happen in their own lives. Continue reading
Angela Duckworth shared this story in her book Grit. She said that Tobi Lutke dropped out of high school in Germany at age 16. He had learning disabilities and was failing at school. He got a job as an apprentice at an engineering company and he met an older man who was a programmer in the basement of the building named Jurgen. This mentor corrected all the code Tobi wrote and he reminded Tobi on a daily basis how he could improve. One day he gave Tobi an assignment for General Motors. Tobi wrote the code and thought he would be shadowing Jurgen for the presentation. But Jurgen told him he had another appointment and Tobi would have to go alone. Tobi was scared, but he did it. And it was a success. Continue reading
Each day you arrive in your life you are a new person. Yesterday changed you. What you experienced, what you read, who you met, where you went. Your mind sees things differently today. Continue reading
I read about Sam Kass in Michelle Obama’s book Becoming. He was the head chef at the White House. But I didn’t know his back story. I heard it last week on Tim Ferriss’ podcast and it was so inspiring. He went to the University of Chicago on a baseball scholarship and did a history degree because he was always interested in how we got to where we ended up. He mentioned a tidbit about professional baseball that I found extremely interesting. He said the top professional baseball players have a 30 per cent success rate. So the best players in the league fail 70 per cent of the time. How inspiring is that? They hit more but they also swing more. A lesson for us all. Continue reading
Two people who made a big impression on me celebrated their birthdays today. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born 144 years ago on November 30th, 1874. The author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, was born on the same day in 1835, 183 years ago. Continue reading
What is your definition of success? Is it followers? Likes? Salary increases? Bonuses? Is it moments you felt proud? It is finishing something? Is it starting something? Is it times your children inspired you? Is it the ability to travel? Is it buying your own home? Is it selling your life story?
The definition is different for all of us. The one thing that matters is that it’s something that doesn’t disappoint us once attained. Continue reading
They said he was a has-been. Washed up. Never to rise again. I remember the first time he won the Masters. It was 1997 and I won the office pool in a three-way-tie with two other girls because all the office golf experts had written Tiger Woods off, but he was our pick to win.
Yesterday he won the Tour Championship 21 years after that first Masters win and five years after his last professional victory. Continue reading
The world gasped at the sad news of fashion icon Kate Spade passing away yesterday. It reminds us that mental illness doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, what your address is, or how successful you have been. Continue reading