Success is Getting Up More Than You Fall Down

Commentary: This is a continuation of the leadership and success series. One of the characteristic marks of a leadership is getting up more than getting knocked down. I found this interesting essay by Harvey Mackay about success. Military training used to teach many valuable skills. Among them was the will to fight and persistence in the face of austere adversity. The military also taught how to make judgment calls based on the risks and objectives at-hand. Consider these topics as you read through.

Success is Getting Up More Than You Fall Down

By

Harvey Mackay

I am constantly asked what I think is the secret of success. Well, it’s a lot of things, but at the top of my list are two beliefs:

1. You need to be a hungry fighter.
2. A hungry fighter never quits.

I’ve learned over the years that success is largely hanging on after others have let go.

When you study the truly successful people, you’ll see that they have made plenty of mistakes, but when they were knocked down, they kept getting up… and up… and up. Like the Energizer Bunny keeps going… and going… and going.

Abraham Lincoln failed in business, lost numerous elections and his sweetheart, and had a nervous breakdown. But he never quit. He kept on trying and became, according to many, our greatest president. Consider some examples.

• Dr Seuss’s first children’s book was rejected by 23 publishers.
• Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
• Henry ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt was struck down by polio, but never quit.
• Helen Keller, totally deaf and blind, graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College and went on to become a famous author and lecturer
• Adam Clark labored 40 years writing his commentary on the Holy Scriptures
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire took Edward Gibbons 26 painstaking years to complete
• Earnest Hemmingway is said to have revise the Old Man and the Sea 80 times before submitting the manuscript for publication.
• It took Noah Webster 36 years to compile Webster’s Dictionary.
• The University of Bern rejected Albert Einstein’s PhD dissertation, saying it was irrelevant and fanciful.
• Johnny Unitas was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he kept his dream alive by working construction and playing amateur football while staying in contact with every NFL team. The Baltimore Colts finally responded, and he became one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game.
• Richard Hooker worked seven years on the humorous novel, MASH, only to have it rejected by 21 publishers.
• Charles Goodyear spent every last dollar over five years filled with experiments to try to develop a rubber life preserver before he succeeded.

I love the story about the high school basketball coach who was attempting to motivate his player to persevere thorough a difficult season. Halfway through the season he stood before the team and said, “Did Michael Jordan ever quit?”

The team responded, “No!”

He yelled, “What about the wright brothers? Did they give up?”

“No!”, hollered back the team.

“Did Muhammad Ali ever quit?”

Again the team yelled, “No!”

“Did Elmer McAllister ever quit?”

There was a long silence. Finally, one player was bold enough to ask, “Who is Elmer McCallister? We’ve never heard of him.”

The Coach snapped back, “Of course you never heard of him – he quit!”

As you can see, it is important never give up. I remember a young jockey who lost his first race, his second, his third, his first 10, his first 20, then it became 200 and 250. Finally, Eddie Arcaro won his first race and went on to be one of the all-time great jockeys.

Even Babe Ruth, considered by sports historians the greatest baseball player of all time, failed on many occasions. He struck out 1330 times.

Sir Winston Churchill, a person who never quit in a lifetime of defeats and setbacks, delivered the shortest and most eloquent commencement address ever given. Although he had taken three years to get through the eighth grade because of his trouble learning grammar, Churchill, much later in life was asked to address the graduates of Oxford University.

As he approached the podium with his cigar, cane, and top hat, he shouted, “Never Give Up!”

Several seconds passed before he rose to his toes and repeated, “Never, never give up.” Then he sat down.

Comment: An important key to the success of the people illustrated in the essay is that they not only made mistakes and/or got knocked down. They made mistakes and took measured risks getting to their goals. They had personal limitations to work around and many learned to manage those limitations such as Helen Keller. Another point to consider is getting knocked down may be out of the control of the individual most of the time. Einstein’s dissertation being rejected as irrelevant and fanciful was certainly not the position Einstein was seeking or even thinking. Getting up more than getting knocked down is a thoughtful process and strategic effort on the part of those we remember.

References:

Misner, I and Morgan, D. (2004). Masters of success: proven techniques for achieving success in business and life. pp 47-49. Canada.