Success Key No. 11: Strength Grows Out of Struggle
Struggle similarly toughens the human spirit. Most people try to go through life following the path of least resistance. They fail to recognize that this philosophy is what makes rivers crooked – and sometimes does the same for human beings. Without the strength of character that grows out of struggle, we would be mightily tempted to flow through life with little purpose or plan.
Success Key: Strength Grows Out of Struggle
Today's Success Key is short and sweet - but don't let that fool you as to the Power of this Key.
It is axiomatic that achievement of any significance requires effort and struggle. Nothing worthwhile in life comes without stuggle. Otherwise, it would be easy and everyone would be able to accomplish it. Think about it.
Glen Boulder Trail View in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Photo by Pascal Lespacrance-Daoust on March 09, 2007.
Consider Donald Trump, who most of us would agree has accomplished Success of an enormous magnitude. Did Mr. Trump just "step in it?" Was it easy for him to get where he is today? Was his path to Success a "piece of cake?"
Of course not. Trump's rise to a multi-billionaire was fraught and filled with effort and struggle of the kind that most in this world simply would not be able to endure. Most - 99.99% - would simply give up in face of the struggles that Trump has had to overcome to get where he is now. I know that for a fact. How? Because if I was wrong, that 99.99% would be just as rich and wealthy as Trump. Moreover, Trump has stated as much, repeatedly, over the years - that his journey has been very, very difficult.
Indeed, Trump still struggles. Presently, he is embroiled in a bitter battle with mogul Carl Ichan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts as to the value of Trump's New Jersey casino business. How many of us have the stomach for such nasty litigation - of which bankruptcy adversary proceedings universally are. Most, the vast majority, could not stand strong in the face of such struggle and would readily give up.
Yet, all who do Succeed will tell you that it is out of the struggle itself that the will to Succeed grows. Strength grows out of struggle, and Strength is a foundation to Success.
Behind every legitimate Success story is a seed of equivalent worth as to the Struggle to get there.
Napoleon Hill wrote about Strength, Struggle and Success years before he wrote Think and Grow Rich based on his exhaustive study of the world's most Successful individuals. The following is our Success Manual Strategist edition of one such article, Strength Grows Out of Success. It is a great pearl of Wisdom; heed it closely.
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Struggle is a clever device through which Nature compels humanity to develop, expand and progress. It is either an ordeal or a magnificent experience, depending on one’s attitude toward it. Success is impossible – unthinkable even – without it.
Life, from birth to death, is literally an unbroken chain of ever-increasing, unavoidable struggle. The education we receive from the struggles we face is cumulative – we get it a little at a time from every experience we encounter.
“Do the thing,” said Emerson, “and you shall have the power.”
Meet struggle and master it, says Nature, and you shall have the strength and wisdom sufficient for all your needs.
Indeed, the strongest trees in the forest aren’t those most protected; they are those that must struggle against all elements and other trees – and surmount them – to survive. The scattered oak trees standing in the open fields where they were exposed to the full force of the blazing sun and blasts of wind are those that grow the strongest. These trees strained against Nature – they struggled – and, thus, are far stronger and tougher than the protected oaks deep in the forest. It was timber from the trees that had struggled that the wagon builder uses for building wagon wheels, bending them into arc-shaped segments, without fear that they would break. Because they had struggled, they had grown strong enough to bear the heaviest loads.
Struggle similarly toughens the human spirit. Most people try to go through life following the path of least resistance. They fail to recognize that this philosophy is what makes rivers crooked – and sometimes does the same for human beings. Without the strength of character that grows out of struggle, we would be mightily tempted to flow through life with little purpose or plan.
Once we understand the broad purpose of life, we become reconciled to the circumstances that force us to struggle. As a result, we accept struggle for what it is – opportunity.
Struggle forces us to move when we would otherwise stand .still. And it leads us eventually to the full realization that success comes only through struggle. Nothing worthwhile in life is ever achieved without a struggle. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Wherever you find a successful person, you will find a person who has struggled in his or her life. Life is a struggle and the rewards go to those who meet difficulty face to face, overcome it, and move on to the next challenge.
By running to embrace struggle, rather than trying to avoid it, you, too, can use it to help you learn, grow – and succeed.
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Mount Washington image with permission from the Mount Washington Observatory. Thanks, Crew!
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