7/15/13

The One Thing Successful People Never Do | LinkedIn

Bernard Marr
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The One Thing Successful People Never Do

July 15, 2013

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Success comes in all shapes and colours. You can be successful in your job and career but you can equally be successful in your marriage, at sports or a hobby. Whatever success you are after there is one thing all radically successful people have in common: Their ferocious drive and hunger for success makes them never give up. Successful people (or the people talking or writing about them) often paint a picture of the perfect ascent to success. In fact, some of the most successful people in business, entertainment and sport have failed. Many have failed numerous times but they have never given up. Successful people are able to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and carry on trying. I have collected some examples that should be an inspiration to anyone who aspires to be successful. They show that if you want to succeed you should expect failure along the way. I actually believe that failure can spur you on and make you try even harder. You could argue that every experience of failure increases the hunger for success. The truly successful won't be beaten, they take responsibility for failure, learn from it and start all over from a stronger position. Let's look at some examples, including some of my fellow LinkedIn influencers: Henry Ford - the pioneer of modern business entrepreneurs and the founder of the Ford Motor Company failed a number of times on his route to success. His first venture to build a motor car got dissolved a year and a half after it was started because the stockholders lost confidence in Henry Ford. Ford was able to gather enough capital to start again but a year later pressure from the financiers forced him out of the company again. Despite the fact that

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The One Thing Successful People Never Do | LinkedIn

the entire motor industry had lost faith in him he managed to find another investor to start the Ford Motor Company - and the rest is history. Walt Disney - one of the greatest business leaders who created the global Disney empire of film studios, theme parks and consumer products didn't start off successful. Before the great success came a number of failures. Believe it or not, Walt was fired from an early job at the Kansas City Star Newspaper because he was not creative enough! In 1922 he started his first company called Laugh-O-Gram. The Kansas based business would produce cartoons and short advertising films. In 1923, the business went bankrupt. Walt didn't give up, he packed up, went to Hollywood and started The Walt Disney Company. Richard Branson - He is undoubtedly a successful entrepreneur with many successful ventures to his name including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Music and Virgin Active. However, when he was 16 he dropped out of school to start a student magazine that didn't do as well as he hoped. He then set up a mail-order record business which did so well that he opened his own record shop called Virgin. Along the way to success came many other failed ventures including Virgin Cola, Virgin Vodka, Virgin Clothes, Virgin Vie, Virgin cards, etc. Oprah Winfrey - who ranks No 1 in the Forbes celebrity list and is recognised as the queen of entertainment based on an amazing career as iconic talk show host, media proprietor, actress and producer. In her earlier career she had numerous set-backs, which included getting fired from her job as a reporter because she was 'unfit for television', getting fired as co-anchor for the 6 O'clock weekday news on WJZ-TV and being demoted to morning TV. J.K. Rowling - who wrote the Harry Potter books selling over 400 million copies and making it one of the most successful and lucrative book and film series ever. However, like so many writers she received endless rejections from publishers. Many rejected her manuscript outright for reasons like 'it was far too long for a children's book' or because 'children books never make any money'. J.K. Rowling's story is even more inspiring because when she started she was a divorced single mum on welfare. Bill Gates -co-founder and chairman of Microsoft dropped out of Harvard and set up a business called Traf-O-Data. The partnership between him, Paul Allen and Paul Gilbert was based on a good idea (to read data from roadway traffic counters and create automated reports on traffic flows) but a flawed business model that left the company with few customers. The company ran up losses between 1974 and 1980 before it was closed. However, Bill Gates and Paul Allen took what they learned and avoided those mistakes whey they created the Microsoft empire. History is littered with many more similar examples: Milton Hershey failed in his first two attempts to set up a confectionary business. H.J. Heinz set up a company that produced horseradish, which went bankrupt shortly after. Steve Jobs got fired from Apple, the company he founded. Only to return a few years later to turn it into one of the most successful companies ever. So, the one thing successful people never do is: Give up! I hope that this is inspiration and motivation for everyone who aspires to be successful in whatever way they chose. Do you agree or disagree with me? Are there things would add the list of things Search forother people, jobs,you companies, and to more... Home Profile Network Jobs Interests successful people never do? Please share your thoughts... ------------------Make sure you click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Bernard Marr in the future and feel free to also connect via Twitter, Facebook and The Advanced Performance Institute Related post: 3 Vital Leadership Lessons I learnt Flying a Fighter Jet How Influential Are You? Measure It!

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1,026 comments

Roman A. Entrepreneur wake up call for those who are in the making of... great reminder
Like 50s

Anil M. Starlims Analyst at Dr Lal PathLabs The next door of failure is success. Really very Influence article
Like 1m

Mohamed N. Audit Committee Adviser at Omani National Livestock Development company (S.A.O.C.) Thanks Mr. Bernard for these great topic
Like 3m

Duane P. Sr. Training Specialist at Ingram Micro A well-conceived title, and content that's very inspiring. Great article!
Like 4m

Bhuwan V. accountant at RITES LTD good lesson

Like 10m

Aamer A. Chief Executive Officer at Phoenix Holding Group Limited Great article.
Like 12m

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The One Thing Successful People Never Do | LinkedIn

tracy Z. Editor Successful people always believe in themselves, not taking others' judges to heart and fearing about failures.
Like 13m

Sidra H. STUDENT at University of the Punjab Success is getting up every time you fall,failure is refusing to get up at all:)
Like 14m

. N. Aerospace Integrated Product Team Manager, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt & Entrepreneur Thanks for an inspirational read. Your article is also a reminder that the path to success may not likely be linear as one would hope.
Like 14m

Mai O. Software Consultant at Infusion Development v true

Like 14m

Judith U. Freelance at Financial Times Very inspirational! Never ever give up

Like 15m

Angie S. Helping you regain 2 hours a day and increase productivity by 40% | Speaker | Trainer | Coach Of course! Never, never give up! Nice inspiration to share.
Like 15m

Cheldena A. Chelde Enterprises, LLC All business has it's positives and negatives. However, I believe the only way to succeed is to do what you enjoy. Until then you will not truly succeed. It depends on how you measure success.
Like (1) 15m

Arun K.

Christy D. Admissions Enrollment Associate at McAfee School of Theology (Mercer University) Thanks for the encouragement!
Like 15m

Peter B. at CRS Swaziland Great inspiration.... As a great man (Winston Churchill) once said. Never give in, never, never, never, in anything great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

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Mouna B. Owner & G.Manager of MB International Retail Group - Online Group of Boutiques GCC & Noth Africa Wonderful Article
Like 21m

Amanda B. Consumer Insight Sr. Manager, freelance graphic designer Totally agree with you Mr. Bernard Marr. Failing is not something to be ashamed of and avoid. It should be used as a reason to keep you moving forward. Thank you for the article.
Like (1) 26m

Mouna B.

Marc P. MSRP Research Intern at MIT I disagree with this article. Knowing when to giving up, in my opinion, is a very important ability to have. If one can't identify when a cause is lost, then s/he will continue putting effort and capital into a fruitless sinkhole. In the examples you gave, you stated things as "failures". But, the thing that prevented those failures from being a absolute downfall is that at some point, the future-success-story realized the failure and gave up, learned from their mistakes, and continued forward. I believe giving may have actually played an instrumental part in the success of many of the examples you gave. Giving up doesn't have to amount to never again having ambition.
Like (1) 28m

deema A.

Nicholas L. Associate at Latham & Watkins Tomasz D makes a great point and corrects an otherwise excellent article. You should never "expect" failure. Just don't be dismayed by it.
Like 29m

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