Success

 A Success Lesson from Walt Disney

The reporter expected a “warm and fuzzy” answer. He imagined that Disney would mention the joy of the creative process. He thought that the creator of Mickey Mouse would be proud of his enduring character. He thought this icon of family entertainment might smile and wax eloquent about the laughter of children.

Instead, Disney replied without hesitation, “I built the whole thing myself.”

While that answer is not what you might expect, it reveals how Disney overcame challenge after challenge after challenge. Although many of his movies took on “storybook” and “fairy tale” proportions, his rise to success was anything but “storybook” or “fairy tale.”

Well, whose is? Success is never neat, elegant, or pretty. It only seems that way after the fact and then only to the naďve or ill-informed. It may have a happy ending. However, phone card china can bet there were many thrills, spills, and narrow escapes along the way. If you’re looking for the proverbial “walk in the park,” forget about being a success. Join a hiking club.

Show me any successful person and I’ll show you someone with grit, backbone, and steely determination. And I’ll show you someone with a powerful driving force for success that does not always meet the eye.

For Disney, I’m guessing that the drive to build something himself was the unseen and mostly-overlooked part of his character that kept him going. He suffered more than his share of setbacks. Without this driving force, we might never have heard of Walt or Mickey.

So what’s your driving force of success? Here’s a simple technique that will help you discover and harness it.

Imagine your life without the success experience you desire. Just for the sake of this exercise, let’s say you quit and resign yourself to just “get by.” If you’ve been at all serious success, you’ve had the thought once or twice anyway. We all have. However, let’s imagine life if you “gave in” and quit your quest for success.

Now fast-forward to your deathbed. After a long life of mediocrity, what do you wish you would have done and what would it have meant to you?

What might you have said if you had chosen another path and someone asked you “What’s the most satisfying part of your success?” What would you say if you hadn’t given up and let mediocrity instead of excellence rule your life?

It’s not a cheery thought. However, it does offer a new and perhaps unique perspective on what drives you and makes success worth more than money.

And it helps you verbalize this unique driving force without which you might well give up and make this exercise a sad reality.

So find that driving force of success that propels you around, over, or even through obstacles. Like Walt Disney, it may not be obvious to anyone except you.

However, it will make your success a virtual certainty even as you encounter the inevitable “thrills and spills” along the way.