It Isn’t Easy to Succeed.
Last week my company hosted 20 of the most talented sales leaders I have ever met, as they attended our two-and-a-half-day Coaching Catalyst program. Their National Sales Director is an incredible leader, and their passion for what they do and their commitment to excellence is crystal clear. During one of the sessions that was content-filled and a bit tedious, I felt compelled to remind them that this is not easy.
Being great at selling or teaching and coaching sales people to be exceptional is not easy.
It’s hard.
Any attempt we make to extend ourselves, be more successful, learn more, do more, be more will NEVER be easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Successful people find a way to achieve even though they’re faced with obstacles.
It isn’t easy being a single Mom.
It isn’t easy being unemployed.
It isn’t easy having a relative at war
It isn’t easy being broke.
It isn’t easy to find a great job.
It isn’t easy to start a company.
It isn’t easy to raise kids.
It isn’t easy to care for a child with disabilities.
It isn’t easy to work 2 jobs.
It isn’t easy to achieve your dreams.
The list of things that aren’t easy is very long. But here’s what I know.
Single Moms (and Moms whose spouses travel a lot) do incredible work raising great kids. People work their fannies off finding a job when they are unemployed. Husbands and wives live incredibly productive lives in the absence of a spouse who is out there fighting for our country, never knowing how that tour of duty might end. Some of the most loving, giving people I have ever met were caring for a child with a disability. Their devotion to doing what must be done is humbling, and their grace in doing it may be as admirable as anything I can imagine. I know it isn’t easy being broke, because I have been there.
You see, failure is never final unless, we let it be.
I could go on and on about people who persist until they succeed. The reality is that almost everything in life is hard. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.
In 1969, Deaton Smith, the valedictorian at my alma mater VMI, said, “A life without a sense of responsibility is a life without meaning.” Successful achievers in every walk of life are doing all kinds of unnoticed and often unappreciated, unrecognized vital life’s duties. They do them in silence mostly, but they do them because they understand that what Deaton said is a universal truth, and they do what they because it is their responsibility, and it’s always worth the effort.