Why You Must Face Your Own Challenges

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”---Robert H. Schuller

Life is full of challenges. Everyone faces his or her own lot according to his or her own portion. The way you face your own challenges is what determines your success or failure. Life favors only those who are able to stay focused and determined even when the going gets tough.

It may interest you to know that:

John Bunyan was confined to a prison cell and sorely punished for his religious beliefs yet he was able to write one of the finest pieces of English literature “The Pilgrim’s Progress” while in prison.

Professor Wole Soyinka wrote “The Man Died” while in solitary confinement in Nigerian prisons during the civil war, punished for his views on the war.

Robert Burns was illiterate, abysmally poor and a drunkard to the bargain. The world benefited immensely from his thoughts which he clothed in fine poetry.

John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” when he was already blind.

Abraham Lincoln The 16^th president of the United States after failing many times in business and politics was so poor that he had to borrow money to pay the train fare to attend his own inauguration as president.

Beethoven one of the greatest music composers of all time lost his hearing before composing some of the master-pieces for which he is best remembered.

Thomas Edison was a partially-deaf school drop-out who became one of the greatest inventors of all time.

Florence Nightingale very weak, very ill and in her hospital bed managed to reorganize the hospitals in England.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32^nd president of the United States, suffering from infantile paralysis and in a wheel-chair managed to become one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had.

Demosthenes stammered badly but he managed to become a renowned orator and the greatest orator in ancient Greece.

Napoleon Bonaparte overcame his lowly beginnings as a diminutive Private in the French Army to become a conquering General annexing a very large chunk of Europe.

Most people who managed to overcome big challenges in life somehow ended up great. There must therefore be some beneficial relationship between obstacles and success in life. This must have been the reason why Booker T. Washington argued that “you measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.”

Why You Must Bank on Hope

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” –Dale Carnegie

The surest way to despair is to lose hope. Hope is what keeps people working and striving harder to earn a living knowing that tough times could come around but they will always pass away as others before them. This is what keeps hope alive. The feeling that tomorrow will be better than today keeps the spirits high at all times. This is what spurs achievements and productivity. “Once there is life, there is hope.” You must bank on hope if you have the desire to succeed in business.

When you are hopeful about the outcome of any project, you are also prayerful too. That helps to increase your faith. When you lose hope, fear creeps into your mind and that stunts achievements. Fear normally creeps in when faith goes out the window.  Having faith that you can achieve an objective gives you the courage to go after that objective. “With faith, all things are possible.” “God never disappoints those who genuinely believe.” That is the power of faith. Dennis Kimbro in his brilliantly written book “Think and Grow Rich, a Black Choice” came to the following conclusion about faith. “The people who really succeed are those who dare to risk, who challenge the status quo and push themselves beyond their normal limits. No person ever fully discovers and develops all the potential within himself until he expresses his faith.”