I have never met anyone who did not want to be exceptionally smart or talented, which could be defined as “brilliant.” However, I have met many people who don’t allow their brilliance to shine bright. I have also met many people who do not allow the flame of their brilliance to shine bright continually because they are not resilient. Successful people know that without being resilient, you cannot brilliant.
bril·liant /’brilyənt/ adjective
- (of light or color) very bright and radiant.
synonyms: bright, shining, blazing, dazzling, vivid, intense, gleaming, glaring,
luminous, radiant;
- exceptionally clever or talented.
re·sil·ient /rə’zilyənt/ adjective
- (of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending,
stretching, or being compressed.
synonyms: flexible, pliable, supple;
- (of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.
There is some sort of universal connection between struggle and success. Listen to an interview with any extremely successful person and you will hear stories of extreme struggle. You will also hear the success came as much or more from outlasting the struggle as it did doing something great.
Nobody goes through life unscathed. If I were to ask an audience of people if they have ever experienced challenges in regards to financial, income, job, career, supervisors, relationships, friendships, debt or health, every single person will raise their hands. If I were to identify the most successful people, I will always find people who not only survived, but also then thrived. A major component of thriving is often first surviving.
To survive, you must build your muscle of resiliency. When you are born, you don’t know struggle, but then, every year thereafter, you experience more setbacks and struggles. Each one of the challenges shapes you and defines the person you become. For many, the challenges create everlasting fears that keep them from risking failure to find success. For others, they may start, but then quickly wilt when the self-fulfilling prophecy of struggle and failure comes along. The challenges become excuses to quit and quit early.
Success comes to those who learn to become delusional. You must become delusional in your belief system of success. You must understand and embrace struggle as part of the journey, no more or less than the success itself. Success is no longer a question of “if,” but of “when” and “how.” You may alter course, you may leave one opportunity for a better one you discover along the way, but it is all a journey, and each experience is expected.
It is a universal truth that what you push will push back. What you embrace, you can master. When you embrace the challenge as part of the journey, you can now master the challenge through resiliency. You are able to easily accept the challenge and start thinking of solutions. If not, you will become so overwhelmed by the challenge that you now begin to wear the challenges and setbacks like it’s a suit of armor.
I am often asked what makes great salespeople. Most people equate a great personality or a so-called “gift of gab” as the most important component of success in sales. Not me. I always answer the question with the same answer: “resiliency.” All great salespeople are resilient. Great salespeople are resilient enough to let their brilliance shine and to keep relighting the candle each time a strong wind blows it out.
The fact is that everyone at times will have their candle blown out — and likely many times. The key to success, happiness and life is to have the resiliency to relight the candle time after time, especially in your deepest, darkest moments of doubt and pain.
Everyone on earth has brilliance of some kind. The question is, will you work enough to find it, light it and keep it lit?
If you would the report “The 7 Keys to Brilliance” email me at info@tewart.com.