We often come up with excuses for not working on and achieving our dreams. “I don’t have money to stat a business now”, “I don’t have the knowledge”, “I don’t know the right people”, “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not brave enough, beautiful enough, smart enough”, I could go on and on and on listing possible excuses for not going forward. I myself, used multiple of these, not long ago.
But one day I heard a talk by Tony Robbins which resonated with me so much. Basically he said that to accomplish a goal one does not need resources but rather one needs to be resourceful. He went onto explaining that anybody can be resourceful if they have the right motivation. And “resourceful“ simply means that you obtain the stuff that you currently don’t have in order to start working on your goal. For example, if lack of money is the issue, you can get a temporary job, sell something that you don’t use, borrow etc.
Very few people have become successful by having everything to start with. In fact, most of the successful people today have risen from humble beginnings.
Moreover, it seems to me that the more one have suffered, the more motivation one has to achieve one’s dreams.
Here is a list of 5 famous and successful people today who all had very simple beginnings and have gone through a lot of challenges in their lives.
1. Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey is without a doubt one of the most successful comedy actors today. Movies, such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”, “The Mask” and “Dumb And Dumber” brought a lot of laughter to my childhood.
However, Carrey talks openly about the struggles he faced in his early years and about how his youth was far different from the comedy he portrays in his movies today.
When Jim was only a teenager, his father lost his job and the family became homeless for a while. At that point young Jim had to quit school and get a job as a janitor to help support his family.
During his childhood, Jim’s mum suffered depression. In his deep desire to make her happy, he learned how to make funny impressions and a variety of comedy tricks. In one of his talks today he remembers that common greeting for their house guests would be him throwing himself down the stairs and then repeating the feat in a slow motion.
Through his suffering as a child, Jim found his passion for comedy.
Nevertheless, it took years of hard work, auditions, and small stand-up comedy shows before Jim got his break and became what he is today.
2. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was born in a poor family. He was the 10th son amongst 17 siblings and his father supported their family by working in the soap-making business. The family could only afford to send Benjamin to school for 1 year, in between the ages of 9 and 10.
However, Benjamin had genuine interest in learning and he continued his education by reading books at home. At the age of 12, Benjamin apprenticed to his brother James who was a printer. Eventually, James started the first newspaper in Boston, for which Ben wanted to write. However, knowing that his brother would never let him, he started writing letters secretly and sneaking them under the door of the printing house. They became smashing hit and everybody loved them. But when James found out that his brother was writing the letters, he grew quite jealous of him and eventually turned abusive.
After a little while, Ben could not take it anymore and decided to run away. At the time, running away was illegal, as people believed that everyone belonged to a society and runaways did not fit in anywhere.
Ultimately, Ben ended up in Pensilvania. Without money, home or friends, he went onto opening his own printing house, launching The Library Company, Philosophical Society, and Pennsylvania Hospital which all still exist today.
3. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah’s parents were just teenagers and so they lacked the sense of responsibility and means to raise a child. Throughout her childhood, Oprah didn’t have the security of a permanent home. She moved often, living alternately with her grandmother and her mother. She also spent some time with her father.
Not only that, but Oprah was also abused sexually by a family friend. Like her own mother, she became pregnant when she was only 13. Eventually, she gave birth to a baby boy, which sadly passed away shortly after birth.
Nonetheless, after all of that, Oprah went onto becoming one of the most famous and successful public figures of all times.
4. Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison struggled a lot in school. His teachers thought that he wasn’t smart enough, so his mother decided to teach him at home after only a few months of formal education. She taught him maths, reading and writing.
Moreover, Thomas was a very curious child and loved reading and so he learned a lot from books by himself. He also loved to tinker and try new things. He would often try to solve a problem in a various ways.
When he was only 12, he become completely deaf in one ear and started developing hearing problems in the second ear too.
However, somehow Thomas managed to turn his hearing problems into his biggest assets. Not hearing outside noises allowed him to focus solely on his work and intense problem solving.
Thomas Edison went onto becoming one of the greatest inventors in history with 1093 inventions.
5. Walt Disney
Walt Disney was born to a large family of an Irish immigrant. Walt’s father worked in construction but the family was struggling financially. In his childhood Walt Disney had to do a lot of work in assistance of his father, which, as he later stated helped fuel his ambitions and imagination to escape reality.
He developed interest in drawing and studied cartooning at school. And later on pursued a career as a cartoonist. However, Walt was rejected multiple times, the reason being that he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.
Walt Disney also had a few failed attempts in starting own cartooning studios.
But none of the above discouraged him in following his dreams and ambitions. Eventually, Walt and his brother Roy established the Disney Brothers Cartooning Studio, which was a total success. Today, the company is one of the most successful and powerful in the entertainment world with a market cap of $187 billion.
So, What’s The Lesson I’ve Learned?
All of these examples are completely different from one another. The individuals described had different ambitions, worked on absolutely different projects and achieved varied results. However, they all have three things in common:
- They all rose from zero.
- They had to overcome numerous challenges in their strive to succeed
- They had unstoppable determination
This truly shows that in order to achieve our goals and dreams we really don’t need money, education or connections, but rather, cultivating resilience in navigating hardships and unwavering tenacity are the most important resources that we will ever need. And guess what? They are available to anybody, at anytime. And they are available to you, right now!