How do you become an overnight success? You work really hard for 10 years. You show up every day. You do the work. You see yourself as an artist dedicated to your craft with a desire to get better.
You try new things. You fail. You improve. You grow.
You face countless challenges and tons of rejection that make you doubt yourself and cause you to want to quit. But you don't.
You keep working hard, you stay positive and persevere though it all with resilience, determination and a lot of hope and faith.
Then you make it! And the world says, "Where have you been?" And you say, "I've been here all along but you didn't notice me."
But they do now.
To the world you are an overnight success. To you the journey continues.
I know this journey well. When I started speaking 10 years ago I was told that I was wasting my time. When I wrote The Energy Bus, it was rejected by 30+ publishers. When Wiley decided to publish it, none of the bookstores would carry it. I went on a 28-city tour, paid for by myself, to share the message and spread the word one person at a time. For every hundred people I invited on the bus, one person got on.
When I arrived home after driving thousands of miles I walked in the door, fell to the ground and just wept as my wife hugged me.
Years later The Energy Bus is frequently on the best seller lists, approaching a million copies sold worldwide and most importantly impacting many people, organizations and families.
I don't say this with an ounce of pride. I say it with tears in my eyes because I know the miles I've traveled, the failures I've experienced, the adversity I've faced, the rejection I felt and the faith that carried me.
I say this to you because I want you to know there's no overnight success. There's a story behind every achievement and it's filled with sweat, pain, hard work, struggle, tears and joy.
Wherever you are on your journey, stay positive, keep doing the work, keep improving.
Expect challenges, criticism, rejection and failure but have an even greater expectation that you will overcome them.
The valley always leads to the mountain top if you are willing to stay on the path, weather the storms and make the climb.
