It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer. – Albert Einstein

By Dawn Onley

Get used to hearing the word “no.”

Get used to things not working out.

Listen to why, learn from it, and keep it moving. Don’t let “no” deter you. Try a different course of action, sure, but don’t fall apart when things get tough. Failing is a key component of success.

Never, Ever Give Up.

Like, ever. “It’s always the last key on the key ring that opens the door,” the ever sage Paulo Coelho writes in “Manuscript Found in Accra.” He was referring to love, but you can replace life for love and it works just as well.

I enjoy reading memoirs to understand the depths that people have survived and to learn the valleys from which they have traversed to become who they are. Most of us have heard “no” quite a few times. Many people stop right there. But successful people keep right on going. They submit yet another query to a publishing house. They go to another tryout. They interview for another job, or start their own business. They try another bank for a mortgage loan. They try a new approach.

Indomitable Will

There is something that happens with that type of indomitable spirit. Suddenly, doors open. Blessings rain down. Breakthroughs occur. Things that once seemed impossible become possible. Winning becomes contagious. Opportunities abound. You start walking in abundance. You meet the right people and forge great connections. Synchronicity happens at nearly every turn. God winks. You become fearless because when you know who you are and whose you are, what is there to really fear?

Yes leads to more yes!

You begin walking in your gift. You are pulled by purpose. You begin making your time count. Trivial things and trivial people no longer matter. You are on a path that was destined just for you. Suddenly, you have guts that you never fully realized you had. You have courage and staying power.

You believe and so you achieve. As a woman thinketh.

Comfortable with No

And it’s all because of what you endured.

 

To get to that place of divine serendipity, you have to become comfortable with no. You have to make peace with failure. You have to reconcile with second and third and fourth and fifth attempts. You have to be okay with looking like a fool, with people whom you love second-guessing you, or even talking about you behind your back.

You have to get so excited about the possibility of the thing that the threat of hearing no stops bothering you. You have to know, deep down inside, that every no brings you one step closer to YES!

You have to know it’s your time. You have to be on a mission.

And you have to believe that there is not a “no” on this Earth, that can keep you from fulfilling your destiny — not now, not ever. Once you believe that, there isn’t.