Don't Give Up.
Photo & lettering by Ievgeniia Onokhova • Moscow
If you’ve ever said the words “debt” or “credit card” out loud, someone has probably mentioned Dave Ramsey to you. He’s the financial expert whose magical debt snowball will help you control your finances. But Ramsey owes his success to a gut-wrenching experience: he failed and failed big time… to the tune of 4 million dollars…when he was 26 years old.
If you’re on a path of growth, I guarantee that at some point in your life you’re going to face an obstacle that will make you question everything you’ve worked towards. Suddenly your goals seem unattainable and you’ll want to quit.
There’s one simple way to keep growing. It’s easy and you can start doing it right now. Ready? Do not stop!
It’s that simple… and one of the hardest things you’ll do.
The only way to truly fail at something is if you stop trying. If you keep moving, you are growing and improving, even when you feel like you just may be failing.
Brooke Castillo, one of the most powerful life coaches in the world says it this way, “True progress is really about failing forward. You set a goal, start working on it and it either goes smoothly or it’s a struggle, but here’s the key – just keep moving. The process goes something like this - launch, fail, learn, go again, fail, dust yourself off, get some help, succeed, fail, succeed, go again, and go again.”
Let’s say you’ve been chasing your dream for months or maybe even years and you face a soul crushing setback. Your first response may be to decide you were never cut out for this and give up. A warning bell may be going off in your head and you need to listen to it, not because it’s telling you to give up, but because it’s letting you know it’s time to wake up and focus your thoughts.
This is a critical point in your journey and you have to make a choice – do you keep going and growing or do you quit? You will absolutely guarantee your failure if you stop. But if you keep going, you are still on the path toward your dream.
When Dave Ramsey’s world came crashing down, he could have decided he wasn’t cut out for business. Instead, he dusted himself off, listened to the warning bell, and focused his failure into building a business that helps others tackle their finances and avoid his mistakes. This is where the concept of strategic by-products comes in. Simply put, they’re the wonderful things you learn on the journey toward your goal.
Before he was known as a financial genius, Ramsey had a PR team wanting to book him on the Oprah show. They were a new company with few media contacts, but that didn’t stop them. They called Oprah’s company, they sent press releases and they did everything they could to get Dave on her show. And yet nothing was working. But they kept moving. They didn’t give up.
Three years after first contacting Oprah, her team finally called. But Dave wasn’t available and you know why? Because instead of focusing on the setbacks, he spent those three years building his business and getting interviews on scores of media outlets that on a day-to-day basis competed with Oprah’s show. His business had grown so much and his demand in the media was so intense that he was booked too far in advance to squeeze in Oprah. He was too busy for Oprah!
There are going to be times when your goals seem unattainable. Don’t let that stop you.
Great things happen on the way to achieving your goals: you learn and you grow. And you can use those learnings to achieve things you never thought possible. The possibilities go on and on - so you go on and on. This is the key - keep on keepin’ on!