Editor’s note: This article mentions a suicide attempt. If you are struggling or having thoughts of suicide, please contact your local emergency number or a crisis helpline in your country.
“Chase your dreams. And don’t wait to start. A thought is only a wish, and unless it comes with action that brings us closer to that wish, it remains nothing more than an illusion.”
But in pursuit of our dream, not everything will be easy. We may have determination and still not be prepared to face adversity. That’s why the most common trait of successful people is that they never give up, and certainly never fall apart in life’s hardest moments. And there will always be hard moments.
There was a young man you’ve surely heard of who dropped out of high school because he didn’t want to wait to chase his dreams. He bet everything on a single idea: becoming a famous musician, since he believed he had plenty of talent to make it.
But as you can imagine, a musician’s career is anything but easy, and by the age of 22 this young man had realised just how hard it was. Faced with adversity, he came to think he had made the wrong decision, and even regretted giving everything up for such a hard-to-reach dream.
He had lost almost all his money, though at least he could play in bars now and then to eat. Practically broke, he was forced to sleep in laundromats, which stayed open 24 hours a day.
He thought he had failed in life and that his dream was unworkable. After being turned down by several record companies, he concluded that nobody would ever like his music.
The only thing that kept him going and gave him some hope was his relationship with a girlfriend who had stood by him through good times and bad, although when things got “really bad” she decided to leave him.
When she left, the aspiring musician found himself on the edge of the abyss. He quickly focused all his attention on the idea that he would never find another girl like her, and on the fact that he had thrown his life away. There was no hope left for him. He was a complete failure and, as a result, life no longer made sense to him.
The young man decided to take his own life, but in a last glimmer of clarity he reconsidered, just as he reconsidered his options.
He decided to check himself into a mental institution. During his stay there, with the support of some professionals, he rethought his life: they helped him work out what his real problems were, and whether they were really so serious.
Once he had recovered, he told himself he would never sink that low again.
Many years later he spoke publicly about this episode of his life, saying that he has never felt sorry for himself since, no matter what happens.
After leaving the institution, he kept chasing his dream, now more calmly and with the long term in mind.
This musician’s name is Billy Joel, a man who will always be remembered as a music star and whose songs will live on in the memories of millions of fans. As for finding another girl, Billy Joel ended up marrying the supermodel Christie Brinkley.
This story clearly sets out the steps needed for success. We all know you need determination, but who tells us how to survive the hardest moments of the process, the constant refusals and rejections?
A rejection or a “no” in the short term doesn’t have to be a “no” in the long term, so many things that seem impossible in the short term become very possible in the long term if we persist and don’t let adversity defeat us.
This story is a summary of one that originally appeared in Tony Robbins’s book Awaken the Giant Within, adapted and extensively modified.
Read next: The 32 rules for being a successful entrepreneur
Featured image: Distributed by Columbia Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
