“When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word ‘succeed,’ you find that it simply means to follow through.” – F Nichol
From time to time while growing up I’d play baseball, actually stickball, with the other kids my age from the neighborhood.
I never did as well as the other kids. I’d strike out most of the time, and the few times I managed to hit the ball it never went very far.
I’m about to start a new endeavor, one that shows great promise, but have been a little slow in getting going.
In order to make this a success I began thinking about other things I’ve done, some which succeeded and some that failed in the hopes of increasing my chances for success.
I found a common theme with each success and a different common theme with each failure.
Each time I simply went ahead and acted, or coupled myself with someone who ran with the idea, there was success.
Every failure happened because I never followed through. I’d come up with a great idea and then would spend all of my time thinking about what to do and how to do it, but never actually doing it or starting anything, until it was too late.
By then I’d start coming up with reasons why the idea wouldn’t work and would move onto to the next idea
This train of thought, specifically the notion that each failure I had was because I didn’t follow through, got me thinking about baseball.
Pitchers and hitters are told to follow through on the pitch or the swing. This got me thinking about Astoria, and why I was such a lousy hitter: I never followed through on my swing!
So there is no great mystery to success or the ability to hit a ball a little further away. All you really need to do is to follow through.
When you get that great idea and have thought long and hard about it, follow through and actually do it. Failing because you tried and things didn’t work out as expected is fine, it’s how you learn. Failing before you even start is a copout, and the reason why people with limited education and resources are usually more successful than many of the geniuses out there.
Read more posts by O.M. Kiam, success expert. O.M Kiam is a blogger for JenningsWire.