There is a famous saying: “If you want to take the island you need to burn the boats.”
In 2004, I narrowly survived Hurricane Ivan in the Cayman Islands. I lost everything in the flood, but I chose to treat the experience as an opportunity for a fresh start. With the memory of those flood waters around my neck still so fresh, I knew one thing: I have it in me to swim, not sink.
That’s the lesson that life often teaches us, and that I always teach my protogés — your attitude, when faced with a challenge, is what defines whether you succeed or fail. The eminent Harvard psychologist, William James, said it best: “The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.”
How can you practice this attitude, day to day? For me, my faith is strong. My daily prayers are a source of incredible resilience. I ask for the strength to achieve my goals, and I ask for the wisdom to recognize that setbacks just mean that this was not the right time for me. Whatever your faith or beliefs, I encourage you to make a daily commitment for introspection as a source of strength, perseverance and peace of mind. Work hard, aim high and never give up.
Throughout my career, this wisdom has been proven again and again. I’ve worked with people who, on paper, should have been successes, but they didn’t have the resilience to keep going when times were rough. I’ve helped others who seemed to have nothing going for them, but their tenacity took them to unimaginable successes. The sad truth is that sometimes hard work doesn’t pay off. But I promise you this: If you aren’t prepared to work hard, aim high and never give up, failure is pretty much guaranteed.
Sometimes aiming high can feel audacious. It’s easy to let your worries paralyze you. Instead, I suggest turning to the idea that you have been put on Earth for a reason. Focus on the strengths you’ve been given, and accept any setbacks that come your way. By setting aside that time for prayer, meditation or introspection every day, without fail, you can be sure of developing your courage and your positive mindset.
It’s also important to set your sights high. For example, when I started my digital marketing career, I wanted to help attorneys in highly competitive markets land the big cases that will take them to the next level. The most difficult place to do that is in ultra-competitive New York, which has no shortage of attorneys jostling for success, with Google AdWords, SEO and TV spots. It was daunting, but I asked myself: What could I do that would be different?
My potential client was trying to land high-value cases but couldn’t break the top 10 pages of Google, despite spending $100,000 per month on marketing and PR. I’d taken the first available flight from Dallas to New York when they called me, and I’d been waiting to meet the head partner of the firm for over 30 minutes. I was nervous, tired and a little resentful for being made to wait. But I reminded myself: Work hard, aim high, never give up. Finally, he and his fellow partners came to the room and said to me, “Don’t worry about the presentation, let’s see your contract.” He flipped to the last page, signed it without reading it (despite being a lawyer), and he asked his assistant to write me a check for my first month’s fee.
It was no miracle: Just before I boarded the plane from Dallas to New York, I had crafted a compelling story — a press release, I suppose, but at its heart, it was the story that sold it. I’d been moved by the stories of the first responders who had sacrificed so much on 9/11, and I knew that this law firm was uniquely placed to help the first responders’ loved ones and dependents. I realized that I had to tell this story. I had to bring those in need, and those who could help, together. The story almost wrote itself — the plight of these families, and the legal fight to get the help they so deserve. I posted it to my blog. It got picked up by Google News in those few short hours that I was in the air and became the No. 1 search result for those families seeking legal advice. Although I didn’t know it, while I was cooling my heels in the boardroom, they were closing a deal on their first-ever high-value class action suit. That one story I’d published was enough to bring those families together and to turn their fortunes around. This is just one example that proves that hard work and high ambition pay off.
It sounds trite, but I truly believe that no matter what setbacks we encounter, we all have it in us to achieve great things. My faith helps me so much with this, and I am certain that whatever form your beliefs take — daily practice of prayer, meditation, mindfulness, call it what you will — a regular commitment can help you too. Despite losing everything a decade and a half ago, I’m now leading a business that I’m so proud to have built, and that truly helps people get the help that they need. Whatever you want to achieve, have faith, work hard and never give up.
