Cyrus McCormick had lost everything except the mechanical reaper he had invented. In the panic of 1837, he went bankrupt. The bank took his house, his farm, everything—except his reaper. Like the rest of the world, the bank considered it worthless. It wasn't even worth repossessing. McCormick was the only one who believed it was the future of agriculture. He continued to build and sell his reapers, but it was slow going. By 1844, he had sold 50. If he had walked away then, he'd have been considered a failure. But he didn't. He offered demonstrations that showed how the machines outperformed manual labor. He gave money-back guarantees and payment options to make the reapers more affordable. And they finally took off. By the time McCormick died in 1884, he was the richest man in Illinois, with a fortune of at least $10 million. (Some estimates placed it as high as $100 million.) He had built a business that became the foundation of International Harvester—all from his "worthless" reaper.
McCormick's success was based in part on his marvelous machine that finally transformed agriculture forever. But his success was also based on his perseverance in pursuing a decision that most people couldn't see any sense in. Many people would have quit and tried something different, and the decision to pursue a mechanical reaper would then have been considered a failure. McCormick took more than a decade of failure and ultimately turned it into a success. We can't underestimate the power of passion or sheer chutzpah in making a decision successful.
We see this same bizarre confidence in the decision by Col. Joshua Chamberlain during the U.S. Civil War battle at Gettysburg. Chamberlain was charged with holding the critical Union position at Little Round Top against a Confederate attack. In a fierce battle with enemy troops, Chamberlain's men finally had enough ammunition for just one more volley. Yet the enemy pressed forward. Chamberlain ordered his men to load their weapons, fix their bayonets, and charge the enemy. The shocked Confederates turned and fled. This gutsy move may have saved the battle by protecting the Union flank.
Once you make a decision, believe in it.
Once you make a decision, believe in it. It is often the belief in an outcome that makes the outcome come true. Our minds are more powerful than we think. In one study, nearly a third of a group of chemotherapy patients lost their hair. This may not seem surprising, perhaps, but these patients were in the group that was given a placebo, not the actual drug. They lost their hair because they expected to lose their hair. This is the placebo effect. Our thinking and expectations do not control everything around us, but they do have much more of an impact than we realize.
Our thinking and expectations do not control everything around us, but they do have much more of an impact than we realize.
When you commit to a decision, commit wholeheartedly. This passion and confidence could make what is essentially a bad decision turn out for the best. Sometimes a bad decision can become a good one through the sheer force of will. As William James wrote, "Often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true."