I recently posted this picture that was sent to me, and got a huge response from it. So I figured I would blog about it since it was something you all responded to. It is such a simple but great concept. For most people, they think that the road to success is an easy one. When we look at successful leaders from Donald Trump to Michael Jordan, we only see where they are at now. We see the lavish lifestyle that they live and the success that they or their companies have had and think that they just had an easy road. That they got lucky.

The truth is, these guys are just like you and I. They have had their own fair share of ups and downs. For example, Donald Trump or companies that bear his name – have declared bankruptcy four times. Would we ever think that Donald Trump and bankruptcy would ever be in the same sentence? Or that Michael Jordan got cut from his High School Varsity basketball team? Most likely not. We fail to understand successful leaders stories and are therefore discouraged when, we ourselves, fail along our journey to success. It is important to remember that in order to succeed one must first decide to overcome failure.

Michael Jordan once said “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Failure is part of life. It is what drives us to succeed. When we no longer want to fail we do whatever it takes to succeed, and that is the mentality you should have. Don’t let the ups and downs of life take over your thoughts. Instead take each failure you encounter and do whatever it takes to get past it. Those who have experienced great success are those who know that failure is part of life but do not let it end there. They work twice as hard to get back up and keep pushing forward.

Remember: Whatever it takes – BU