The classic business success stories I heard while growing up had to do with people starting with nothing, overcoming great obstacles and becoming financially successful. The great captains of industry, like Ford, Getty and Edison were people to be admired and emulated...but no more. Their modern-day equals, like Kroc (McDonalds), Walton (Wal-Mart) and Gates (Microsoft) are regularly scorned, ridiculed and vilified as if they had stolen candy from babies. This negative attitude towards achievement is spreading in our culture and can be devastating if you let it affect your view of the world. You see, your own success depends on whether you see the success of others as an example or an excuse.

Demotivation Of Pessimism: When we look at amazing success stories with envy and pessimism, we build excuses into our belief system that keep us from being willing to risk and try and grow to achieve more than a 9-5 job with benefits. You can choose to hate Microsoft (for example) or recognize their contribution to the internet by making computers easily accessible to us regular folk...not just the nerds. Millions of people are in business for themselves, thanks to the vision of Bill Gates and company. I couldn't be online, helping people with their problems, without Microsoft products. Countless millionaires and probably some billionaires owe a large part of their success to Mr. Gates.

When we buy these stories that other people's success is built on robbing others, or drug dealing or cheating, we eliminate our chances for success because we don't want to do those things. The problem is, we're buying a lie! How many people have I heard complain that they're being kept down by "the man?" It's true! But, the man who's keeping you down is you. Don't buy it! Most successful people, including the 3 I've mentioned here, have overcome great challenges and achieved their success by providing a more useful product at a reasonable price and by making it possible for countless others to succeed at the same time. It's true, there are obstacles everywhere you look. You can get over or around them or you can turn back, only to find obstacles in that direction, too.

Adversity + Ambition = Achievement: The obstacles are something completely different when we see successful people as examples instead of excuses. All of a sudden we learn of the tremendous adversity and heartache most successful people overcame to get to their goals. Their examples teach us a new attitude, to see obstacles, not as a barricade but as a ladder. The harder it is, the more you have to overcome, the stronger and better you become. The better you become, the more success you can achieve. The struggle, then, isn't a setback or a failure, but a tool for greatness. While this adversity causes most to quit or never try at all, the rewards for those who don't quit become even greater and those rewards go far beyond money.

Education For Life: The meaning of success can never be measured in money...it's nothing, compared to the other rewards. I've had the privilege of knowing a few financially successful people and a few others, successful in other areas while earning a modest income. I guess I'd place myself in the latter group. In my observation, successful people have a depth of life the envious will never understand. I've noticed adversity doesn't harden successful people...it softens them. Sure, they get calluses, like any hard worker, but their compassion and sensitivity are unsurpassed. The struggles they've endured cause them to reach out and help others who are trying to achieve. The wisdom they've acquired causes them to refrain from helping people who aren't trying.

I guess it's easy for us to judge the appearance of things and think it unfair that someone has so much more than us. Since there will always be someone with more, the people who make such judgments are destined for perpetual dissatisfaction. However, If we're the least bit ambitious, willing to put envy aside and work hard on our own goals, those same successful people can provide an example to follow that will make our struggle easier. These people are easy to find if you're climbing the ladder of adversity! The successful people are the ones reaching back down the ladder saying, "Come on! You can do it!"

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