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Famous People Who Succeeded by Not Listening

Written on August 20, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Inspiration, Personal Growth

listen There’s a great page on the Emory University site called They Did Not Give Up. It shows things that were said to, or situations that were faced by, a number of famous people.

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Some examples

The first book that Dr. Seuss wrote was rejected by 27 publishers.

The first time Sigmund Freud presented his ideas to his fellow scientists, he was booed from the stage. His response? He returned to his office and kept writing

A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Disney declared bankruptcy several times before he built Disneyland, which was rejected by the City of Anaheim the first time he proposed it.

And speaking of Walt Disney, he made a mistake of his own when he didn’t hire Charles Schultz. For Schultz, though, that was par for the course. Even the high school yearbook staff didn’t think much of his work – every cartoon he submitted to them was rejected.

After his first audition, the casting director told Sidney Poitier to “stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something." Poitier resolved at that moment to devote his life to acting.

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to listen

george My first real at-risk business was a Ben Franklin franchise in my hometown. It’s a small town so back-to-school is a bigg season. We wanted to be open in time to capitalize on it. My franchise representative told me it couldn’t be done. His boss said it couldn’t be done. We determined we were going to do it. So we did! We opened to throngs of people patronizing our store and a bigg splash by the local media splash. It was a hit!

Sometimes it pays to listen and adapt

marylynn When I was in high school, I tried out for the basketball team. I made the first cut. I made the second cut. When the final cut came out, I looked at the list and my name wasn’t on it. I looked again. I couldn’t believe it! But I hadn’t made the team. So I took up music. I won awards. I even won a scholarship. My failure to make the basketball team allowed for bigger success in music than I could have ever imagined!

So it’s kind of funny. Sometimes it pays to ignore what people tell us. At other times, our disappointments fuel our bigg success. The trick is knowing when to press on with what you’re doing and when to move on to press on.

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Abandon Ship!

How to Know if You’re Persistent or Stubborn

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Ben Franklin Got It Wrong

Written on June 25, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Business, Life Changes, Preparation

Change. A word that sparks fear in many people.

We work to get to that comfortable spot, and we want to stay there.

“Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
Ben Franklin

We think he got it wrong, not in the message, but in the semantics. We think he should have explicitly included change as something that is certain, rather than making it implicit in his quote.

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Will you lead or follow?
Even when it’s change that we’re creating ourselves, it can be scary. But it’s especially frightening when it’s a surprise.

For example, picture Jane telling her boss that she’s accepted a new position. She’s going to experience change. But isn’t that more comfortable than Jane’s boss telling her that her job is being eliminated?

It’s better to be a leader of change than a follower.

Who’s in control?
However, you can’t always control change. What you can control all the time is how you choose to respond to it.

You can also try to anticipate it. For example, as technology continues to develop, change is occurring more and more rapidly. Isn’t it safe to assume that this will continue?

So you have a choice to make. You either develop the skills to anticipate change so you get ahead of it or you just respond to it, after the pain becomes too great to do anything else.

Bigg action item – Separate the change into fads and trends
There are fads and there are trends. Fads come and go, so don’t worry about them. Trends are long-term. Get on board with them.

Divide a sheet into two columns – one called “Fads” and the other called “Trends”. In your chosen career, think about the things affecting your industry. Now start putting those changes into the appropriate column.

What will affect your future income? Something will – for good or for bad!

Is it a short-term phenomenon? Or is it likely to continue? You can position yourself properly by seeing the change coming.

What opportunities will be created? What skills will be important? Do you have them? Can you get them?

Develop a plan for what you need to do to position yourself to take advantage of the trends.

Where do I get this information?
We’ll look at two examples. Search for the name of your industry followed by the word “association”. For example, “beauty salon association” yielded a half-dozen or so associations in Google.

You can also subscribe to magazines for your industry, or just about any industry you’re interested in following. They’re often free, supported by the advertisers. Amazon has an excellent resource that lists magazines by industry. It’s an extensive list!

So there are a number of ways to get the information you need so you can embrace change rather than begrudge it.

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The Single Most Destructive Thought You Can Have

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