part0034

In fact, failure is almost a prerequisite for success. It is a common trait in most successful people. In almost every case, highly successful people refuse to give up. They are people who have failed far more times than most people, but they have not given up.

True success only comes to those who are persistent and refuse to give in to temporary defeat. If you want to become outrageously successful, then you must refuse to give up and you must keep trying until you succeed!

Christopher Columbus once said that “by prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.” The word “unfailingly” in this quote is very significant. Columbus is saying here that we cannot fail to achieve our goals when we overcome every obstacle and distraction in our path. What separates those who achieve very little progress in their lives and those who change the world comes down to one thing — and that is persistence.

Here is a story that illustrates this perfectly. It is from Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

In Hill’s story, an uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the gold fever in the gold-rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich . He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with a pick and a shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labour, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, and told his relatives and a few neighbours of the “strike”. They got together money for the required machinery, and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened. The vein of gold ore disappeared. They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there. They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again— all to no avail. Finally, they decided to quit .

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one. He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines”. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! And that’s exactly where it was found. The “junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

Most of the money that went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbours, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

Long afterwards, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over when he made the discovery that desire can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. Remembering that he lost a huge fortune because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work. He did this with the simple method of saying to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say ‘no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his stickability to the lesson he learned from his quitability in the gold mining business.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country (the United States) has ever known told the author (Napoleon Hill) their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.

Dr Maxwell Maltz once said that a “crisis” is a situation that can either make us or break us. If we react properly to that crisis, it can give us strength, power, and wisdom that we would not ordinarily possess. On the other hand, we can allow that crisis to rob us of the skill, control, and ability that we normally possess.

Likewise, the Chinese character for “crisis” also means “opportunity” and this signifies that every crisis contains within it a great opportunity. Everything comes down to how we react to our changing circumstances and Maltz’s observation was that when faced by a crisis, then the best and quickest way to overcome that crisis is to become far more determined .

Therefore, whenever you face any crisis that could prevent you from achieving a goal, you should actually be more encouraged than before — simply because you are meeting some resistance. It is actual proof that you are making progress towards your goal!

Within every person are two types of “inner voice”. A “voice” that is loud and insists on being noticed, and a “small quiet voice” that is a lot subtler. Our negative inner voice is loud and very persistent. It constantly tells us that we are not worthy, or that we don’t have what it takes to succeed. It also tells us not to bother, and to take the easy way in everything.

This “negative inner voice”, is simply a part of ourselves that tries to sabotage everything we try to create. It’s very crafty, and it is well aware of all our vulnerabilities and feelings of inadequacy. This negative inner voice uses every Achilles’ heel that we possess in order to stop us from improving in our life.

On the other hand, the small quiet voice is the voice of our wisdom. It is the part of our life that is constantly trying to nudge us in the right direction. We need to really listen attentively if we are to hear the wisdom and guidance that it is trying to impart to us. However, what’s most important here is to develop the ability to recognise and overcome the influence of our negative inner voice, because it’s that voice that holds back most people, and to an incredible extent.

This part of our mind has been created through all the conditioning and painful experiences we have encountered during our life. I have already shared with you ways that can help you to overcome this conditioning. But it’s important to realise that no matter how effectively you do this, this negative inner voice can never be completely eradicated.

Our life is a continual struggle between light and dark, positive and negative, wisdom and delusion. Although you can greatly reduce the effects of this negative inner voice, you still need to be aware that it is always within you, and it is always trying its best to interfere in every way that it can. You can remain an ordinary person, or become an extraordinary person. Which one you become is dependent on whether you succeed in overcoming this inner negativity or not.

So how do we reduce the effects of this trickster who constantly gives us all sorts of negative thoughts that try to hold us back? Simply being aware that within you, there is a part of your mind that is working against your goals, this can help you greatly in reducing its influence. Also, by summoning up a burning desire to achieve your goals, the effects of this negativity can be even further reduced.

This negativity works most effectively in people who have no goals in life, or who don’t have any clear direction. It keeps such people powerless to change their lives. However, this is definitely not you, because you wouldn’t be reading this book if you didn’t have big goals, or if there was nothing you wanted to achieve in your life.

By just remaining aware and vigilant of this inner negativity, you will be able to recognise and reduce its effects, and achieve your goals more easily. Dream big, be persistent, and never give in to any obstacles on your path, whether external or internal!