takes to be successful, the number would be astronomical. A significant number of those books (including several I have written) emphasize the importance of taking action on the ideas and opportunities that present themselves in life. The fact is that you can have lots of good ideas and you can be exposed to many great opportunities, but if you don’t do something about them, they might as well be non-existent. It’s pretty amazing how most people put off taking the necessary actions to acquire the things they want and then complain about how they never get a break! There are many reasons people find to justify not taking action, but the absence of desire is one of the root causes. They just really don’t want it badly enough. This is a fatal condition when you are trying to be successful.
We all know that life is tough. Many times our best plans turn sour as we pursue our goals and dreams. For that reason, there are two qualities every person must have to fuel their desire and sustain their pursuit of success. Those two qualities are commitment and perseverance. You need commitment to produce the focus and consistency you need to keep your eye on the target. Then you need perseverance to make it over the rough spots and setbacks you will most certainly experience along your journey to success.
Commitment is the solution to help you overcome the distractions you will face in life and help you stay focused on what really matters. Today, most of our society is up to their necks in the Internet and all that comes with it. Don’t get me wrong. I think the information we now have at our fingertips is astounding, and information is a key ingredient in being informed and equipped with the knowledge we need for success. But the level of information in this day and time is far more than any one person can possibly handle and process. You might say we live in a time of “information overload.” The result of information overload is usually distraction, and it dilutes your focus and takes you off your game.
In golf, if you take your eye off the ball, you will flub it, top it, slice it, hook it, or maybe miss it entirely. Information overload has the same effect. It can cause us to take our eye off the small things we need to consistently do in order to get the results we need. Commitment is about binding ourselves to a specific course of action. People who are committed realize that they have to do specific things to get specific results and they know the results they want. Simply stated, commitment—which is fueled by desire—helps us stay on track to achieve our goals and ultimately win.
Many of you may have heard me tell the story of how I was a boxer earlier in life, but I had to quit because of my hands. The referee kept stepping on them. When Muhammad Ali fought George Foreman in 1974 for the heavyweight championship of the world, he used a strategy he called “Rope a Dope.” Ali leaned on the ropes, covered his head, and let Foreman pound on him for seven rounds in hopes that Foreman’s superior strength and punching power would be exhausted and make him vulnerable to Ali’s speed and quickness. I don’t know about you, but the idea of letting someone like George Foreman hit me repeatedly is pretty frightening—and I’d feel that way before he threw his first punch at me. After he actually started pounding on me, I might have second thoughts about maintaining the strategy! But Ali did maintain the strategy, and it paid off for him in round eight when Foreman was so worn out from pounding on Ali he could hardly hold his arms up. Ali suddenly came off the ropes and landed two rights and a massive left hook that sent Foreman to the canvas. Perseverance on the part of Ali had carried him through to victory in one of the greatest fights in history.
Many times as we go through life we get pounded on just like Ali did in the ring that night with big George Foreman. When tough times happen, we have to persevere through those difficulties and keep pressing on to our ultimate goal and vision. When we get knocked down, we have to get back up and keep on fighting… we must stay focused and remember our greatest victories are still ahead.
More often than not, too many people give up when they get more resistance than they bargained for. Things just seem to get a lot tougher and more difficult than they are willing to deal with. If they fail to persevere through those times, they will fail permanently! If you don’t finish something, it won’t be complete, and until something is completed, it isn’t finished. Much about success is just the result of simply the ability to follow up, follow through, and finish what we started. You’re not beaten by being knocked down. You’re only beaten if you stay down.
Personally, I believe I quit my sales career (in my own mind) more times than anybody who will ever read this book has thought about quitting. It was discouraging to be broke, in debt, uncertain of what I was doing, and not really knowing from one day to the next whether I would sink or swim. It’s times like that when faith, hope, courage, dedication, and persistence are of the utmost importance.
I’ll have to admit it was tough, and discouragement was a frequent companion of mine. I often had to buy fifty cents’ worth of gasoline at a time, and if I made a mistake in addition, I would have to place one or two items at the grocery store back on the shelf. I’ve had my lights and telephone temporarily disconnected when I couldn’t pay the bill, and I’ve even had to return a car when I could not make the payment. When our first daughter was born, the hospital bill was only sixty-four dollars. The problem was, we didn’t have the sixty-four dollars. I had to make two sales in order to get the money together to pay the bill. These were all embarrassing and humiliating circumstances but, fortunately, they were not the end of the world. I had a couple of things going for me that made the difference. I was committed to what I was doing, and the desire I had to win gave me the ability to persevere through the tough times. My dream to be a professional speaker was born in 1952, and though it was not until 1970 that I could pursue my dream on a full-time basis, planning for that career began immediately.
It was 1972 before my speaking career really exploded. I was forty-five years old. However, during the course of the preparation for what was to be, I always stayed grounded in my philosophy and the principles I adhered to. I altered ways in which I delivered my message in those early years, but I was fixated on the principles because I had a powerful vision of how I could help others, and I had a powerful desire for it to become a reality. The combination of vision and desire gave me the commitment to stay the course and the perseverance to keep pursuing my dream.
DESIRE ENHANCES YOUR ABILITY TO PLAN
When you spend the time necessary to plan your future, you are actually engaged in a process that is outlining the things you need to do to fulfill your vision in life. Is there a possibility that you’re not as far along in life as you would like to be? If so, do you feel it is because you’re not made of the right materials and do not have the natural ability to be successful? Or is there more than just a chance that you were born to win but you’ve simply been following the wrong “blueprint” (plan of action or no plan) for your life? Obviously, I have no doubt you were born to win, but remember that before you can win you must plan to win and prepare to win. Then—and only then—can you expect to win. Planning to win is the first step in the winning process and, unfortunately, people resist making a plan. After all, nothing is more embarrassing than creating a plan and then failing to successfully execute the plan. You have to come up with a lot of excuses about why the plan didn’t work!
Fear is the fatal killer of desire. Fear of failure is a big part of the reason why people procrastinate and avoid putting their plans in writing. Plus, planning is hard work! Desire is the difference between you being an enthusiastic planner, passionately working through all the things you need to do to be successful, or just going through the motions of planning like an item on a checklist. I hope you see that planning can either be embraced as an exciting opportunity to win, or avoided as an obligatory exercise or task. When you really want something, when you desire it and you are excited about it, you look forward to planning and preparing because you get to do it. The key words here are “get to do”! If you have the kind of desire I’ve shared with you in this chapter,
