Think a minute…All of us at times feel like we will never achieve the full success in our career that we want. But it helps us to know that nearly every successful person had to overcome hurdles before they reached his or her goal. One such person said: “History has shown that most winners went through heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become disheartened and deterred by their defeats.”
John Grisholm is a best-selling author of novels, some of which have been made into successful Hollywood movies including The Firm, The Pelican Brief, Runaway Jury, and his first book, A Time to Kill. Yet in the beginning, it was rejected by 29 different publishers! When it was finally printed by a small, unknown publisher, it sold only 5,000 copies. Since then, his books have sold 300 million copies and he has written 28 consecutive number one bestsellers!
Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. But in high school he was rejected and cut from his team because the coach said Michael was too short to play.
Thomas Edison, the great inventor, has over 1,000 inventions and patents to his name. He failed 2,000 times in trying to invent the incandescent light bulb. When reporters asked him about his 2,000 failures, he replied: ”I did not fail once. Inventing the light bulb was simply a 2,000-step process.”
In 1954, Elvis Presley sang once for Jimmy Denny, a professional music producer and manager. Afterwards Denny told Elvis: “You ain’t goin’ nowhere…You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” Elvis, of course, ignored this “professional” opinion and went on to become the King of Rock n’ Roll and sell more records than almost any other singer in history.
Long before George MacArthur became a famous general in three major wars, he was rejected two times by the West Point military academy. But he did not stop trying and was finally accepted. After graduating, he marched into the history books as one of the greatest army generals ever.
Every human being fails many times. But the ones who become successful, do not allow their failures to stop them from eventually reaching their potential and living their lives to the fullest. If you will ask Jesus, the One Who gave you your abilities and potential, He will help you with His power to become all He created you to be. He will even use your past mistakes to strengthen and teach you how to live His right, successful way for the rest of your life. Just think a minute…