Many great minds have gone through so many struggles to get to where they are. Many swear that if not for these struggles, they would not have gotten the guts and the drive to push on as they did. It is said that behind a pretty smile, are tears, so it is with success. Behind success are hurdles and struggles a person has had to go through.
Here are a few success stories to show you how some of the heroes of our time overcame problems to achieve the success they now enjoy. Jack Ma Jack Ma is famous for his business savvy that propelled his internet company into a global success, making him the wealthiest person in Asia. The Alibaba.com founder is not only known for his incredible wealth but also his humble beginnings, and the hurdles he had to jump to get to his current position.
Throughout his life, Ma has faced an abnormal share of rejection, but this has only toughened his mental muscles. At one point, he and his cousin went out to apply for a waiting job at the first four-star hotel in their home city of Hangzhou. After waiting for close to three hours on a hot day, the manager finally came around and hired his cousin, leaving out Ma. The reason given for the rejection was because Ma was shorter and less handsome, compared to his cousin.
Perhaps the most widely known story of rejection, however, was which happened when Ma conceived the idea of starting Alibaba. He called 24 of his most trusted friends to his apartment and spent 2 hours explaining to them the dream he had of starting an online retail company. At the end of his presentation, 23 of them told him to give up on that idea. Only one person gave him some reassurance. He told Ma that if he was set on trying it, then he should go ahead and try it, but if the idea failed, he should come back.
Ma was not put down by the negative reception because after sleeping on it, he woke up with renewed dedication that he would pursue his dream. Right then, he began laying the foundations of his startup.
It is easy to look at these achievements and not give them much weight. However, when you read through the series of tough moments and rejections Ma went through to grow his mental muscles, you will begin to appreciate the critical role mental toughness played in getting him to become one of the greatest success stories of our time.
Ma failed more times, and possibly more spectacularly, than many of us will ever fail in our lifetimes. First, Ma was not good at school. He failed his primary school tests twice and almost didn’t make it to middle school. He failed middle school thrice, and twice his college entrance exams. However, just like Ma, other great minds have struggled with their academics early in life, such as Winston Churchill, Forrest Gump, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein. In one of his math papers in his college entrance exam, he scored 1 point out of 120. Not that he hadn’t prepared, he was just so poor at it. Ma went on undeterred even after Harvard rejected him ten times. It is surprising he managed to apply all these times while many of us would give up at the second or third attempt.
After graduating from the Hangzhou Normal University, he happily applied to 30 jobs and was turned down by all. For your humor, he even applied to be a police officer, but they too rejected him with three direct words, “You’re no good.” Still, in his quest to secure a job, Ma applied for one at a KFC, but of the 24 applicants, he was the only one not picked.
When it came to the establishment of his business, Ma calls Alibaba ‘1001 mistakes’ because of the large number of failures he has made with it. However, his company has grown tremendously, thanks to his uncanny persistence and a tough mind. He is proof that no amount of failure should deter a mentally tough person from achieving his goals. He is also proof that it takes practice to develop mental muscle so that you are unshaken by failure and troubles.