Don’t Allow Others to Hold You Back

No matter what you want to do in life, there will always be people who will try to stop you. They will try to make you believe that no matter what, it can’t be done.

Some of the people who will try to stop you are doing it for selfish reasons; they don’t want you to become more successful than they are. But interestingly enough, the vast majority of those people trying to stop you really believe they are doing it for your own good!

• “Why would you want to take such a big risk and give up a secure job where you’re doing well to start your own business?”

• “You mean you’re just going to pack up, leave a place you’ve lived in your whole life and relocate half-way across the country; that’s crazy?”

• “You want to take a job in sales? You’re definitely not the kind of person who would be good at sales!”

These are just some of the ways people who think they have our best interests at heart stop us from doing what we want, or completely take away our confidence to do these things. But is it other people who are stopping us, or is it that we’re allowing them to do so?

For years other people told me I was a lousy writer, so I believed them! Not only did I avoid writing (even letters), but I built a real hatred of writing almost as a defense mechanism. But then something interesting happened.

I went to work for a boss who encouraged me to write, by starting me off writing thank you notes to prospects and clients after each sales appointment. As with anything else in life, the more I did it, the better I became. Surprise, surprise. More importantly, I started to believe I could do it.

I then started writing short articles and to make a long story short, I am now a published author . In addition to my book, I’ve been publishing a newsletter weekly for over 3 years and this blog is visited by thousands of people every month.

Don’t let other people define your life for you.

For example, the myth that if you don’t get a college degree you can’t be successful. Tell that to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Ted Turner. Each one of them dropped out of college, but that obviously didn’t stop them. And before you start whining that they’re special cases, let me tell you about Brenda Romano and Todd Williams.

Brenda is my sister-in-law. She never went to college. She studied to be a secretary. But through hard work, hustle and persistence she is now the President of one of the hottest recording companies in the world and is one of the highest ranking women in the music industry.

Todd is a friend of mine. He dropped out of UNC before he graduated and took a full time job with Sherwin Williams. He eventually started his own company, Rug Works, and is now one of the most successful flooring contractors in the state of North Carolina. Again, a product of hustle, determination and persistence.

Now I’m not saying a college degree is worthless. On the contrary, I believe you’re better off with one than without one. But some people are just not college material, yet the message they’re being sent is: “There’s no way you can be successful without that degree,” and that’s a crock!

Stop letting other people get in your way. If you really believe you can do something, then you can. Of course, if you believe you can’t, you’re right again.