Against All Odds

Nothing ever comes easy. Each goal you have, each dream you have will come with challenges. Understanding this is the only way you will succeed. No one woke up one morning and said, “I’m gonna make a million today” without having already made a million dollars.

Every great journey begins with the first step and you have to be prepared for all that you will face. There will be days you don’t feel like it. There will be times where you will feel run down and hopeless. That is a perfectly natural response.

I like to attribute it to climbing a mountain. When standing at the base of the mountain looking up, you see it will be an obstacle. You understand that climbing this mountain will be difficult, require tons of energy, cause aches and pains, make you tired – possibly to the brink of giving up. But you also know that at the top of that, there will be a point where you can go no higher. There will be a point where you reach the peak. That’s where you will stand, look to the horizon, look below you and realize, “I did it! I didn’t give up! I didn’t quit! I’m literally on top of the world!”

I’m going to share some stories of those that fought against the odds to reach success. I am doing this to remind you that every single one of these people I mention, at one point, were in EXACTLY the same boat that you are in right now. They had anxiety, depression, sadness, and failed several times. But they continued on. They believed in what they were capable of doing. They overcame the odds to reach their goals and achieve their success. They looked at the top of the mountain and said, “This is going to be tough, but I will get there.” And they stood by doing…not trying. They did and they have success to show for it. Here are some stories, brief summaries of those that have overcome overwhelming odds and found their success:

A Single Mom and a Story That Changes the World

She was a single mother, living on welfare, freshly divorced, and doing whatever she could do to take care of her child. The only comfort was the story she was writing, one she wrote on a napkin because she thought it might be a good story to tell. She spent quite some time working on it, developing it and writing it. She was rejected by her first agent she queried it to. The second agent accepted it but was rejected a dozen times before Bloombury finally accepted Harry Potter. Can you imagine if she just gave up and decided that writing wasn’t for her and no one will ever take her seriously? Absolutely not! No matter what she had to battle in order to find her success and reach her goal, she fought hard, didn’t give up – and won! There are so many author stories about how they failed then finally succeeded. But this one rings out because J.K. Rowling had to battle odds; not just as a writer, but as a female writer. She changed her name from Joanne to J.K. in order to mask who wrote the story. And don’t think this happened in a few weeks or a couple months or a year. This was seven years in the making. But she never relented. She kept the idea alive and worked hard to develop it. And now look at her.

Stay-at-Home-Mom: From Dream to Bestselling Author

Stephenie Meyer woke up every morning, took her children to school, went home, cleaned, washed clothes, prepared food, ran errands, went grocery shopping…things a typical stay-at-home mom usually does. Knowing that she was in a normal, natural routine, she wanted to do more. One night, she went to bed and dreamt of a story, a story of a young, beautiful pale-skinned teenager sitting in a meadow with a handsome vampire whose skin glistened in the sunlight. They were in love, but his love was mired by his thirst to eat her. Upon waking the following morning, Meyer woke up, wrote down the story synopsis and went to work. During her days of being a mom, cooking and cleaning and caring for her family, once the house was quiet and sleeping, she would stay up late and write what would eventually become Twilight. Her first chapter was chapter thirteen and then she went from there. It took her three months to write and her only source of inspiration – other than the story – was her sister who loved every chapter she sent to her. In a matter of six months, Meyer would become an official published author. However, she also met rejection and some very discouraging words from those rejections, to which she saved all the letters. Yes, it was a quick change for her to become a publicly known and professionally published author. It could take six months (or shorter) or a year or several years (like with J.K. Rowling).

Riding the Wave of Life

In 2003, a young surfer named Bethany Hamilton was attacked by a shark and her arm was bitten off. She was an American pro surfer and believed that after her attack, she may never surf again. But with a relentless passion and constant pursuit to not allow that to stop her, Hamilton battled the odds and made her way back into surfing competitions. She still competes and has come in first place in a few competitions and still does very well as a surfer. She wasn’t about to allow herself to get down and was able to prove that she had what it would take to make it to the top of the surfing world again…with one arm! Her book was eventually made into a movie and released in 2011.

All She Wanted Was a Car

This is one of my favorite success stories. At the age of 14 and wanting a car when she turned 16, Isabella Weems was told by her parents there was no way on their salaries they would be able to afford to buy her a car. They told her she needed to save up. After pondering this for some time, she was stuck and had no idea what to do. So she went to her father and he told her she should start a business. She researched online business ideas, but kept hitting a roadblock. While tugging on her locket and glancing down at her charm bracelet, she had an idea…why not create a see-through locket with charms that represent the interests of the person wearing it. With $350 she saved and a $350 loan from her father, she incorporated Origami Owl. In the first year, her company made $200,000. In her second year it made $20 million. By the third year, the company made over $200 million. Do you think she was able to buy a car when she turned 16? I’m guessing yes.

Sam I Am

Another of my favorite success stories is that of Sam Walton. Sam Walton bought a five-and-dime store off a loan from his father-in-law and with the money he made from the military, he opened up the store with high expectations. But Sam was more than just a man on a mission…he wanted to find a way to beat out every other retailer in the country. He would make deals with distributors to purchase products in bulk. The higher the amount of bulk he purchased, the cheaper the price for him to purchase. This led him to realize that by doing so, he could sell the same products that other retail chains sell…but at a much cheaper price! Not long after doing so, people would travel from the neighboring states to Arkansas just to buy products – detergent, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. – at a discounted price that other retailers couldn’t offer or match. Thus the beginning of Wal-Mart. Not only did Sam become a billionaire with his business, he also lived very frugally as he believed that money like that should not determine a wealthier lifestyle…that love and family were still the richest wealth any person could have.

Here is a link to the article if you’d like to read more:

http://www.businessinsider.com/best-rags-to-riches-stories-2015-10

But what is truly great is the amount of both men and women of all walks of life who found ways to beat the odds. They knew they were outnumbered. They knew this, yet still they trudged forward and didn’t let that stop them from becoming successful. They did what they had to do in order to reach their goals. They didn’t try…they did! They went out and found ways to defy the odds to get to their level of success. This is ja reminder for you that anyone can do it. They weren’t a name before they began. They made a name. They believed in themselves. They fought hard battles. They had their ups and downs. But they still managed to beat the odds. There are so many stories like this. And not just for our time or the last decade or last century. There are centuries of stories where the will and passion and desire, the want to succeed and get those goals kept them forging onward. The results speak for themselves.

This is your life. This is your time. You owe it to yourself to get the best from you possible.

Your best self is waiting to be discovered. You have one amazing life so make it the best life possible!

It’s time to ignite!