My #1 Key to Success: If I Can Do It, So Can You!

 
The key to success is not new. You’ve heard it before. It’s persistence.
 
I saw the following Calvin Coolidge quote when I was a teen. Little did I know how it would shape my entire life:
 

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

 
Persistence is Key to having a successful business. To show you persistence in action, I’m sharing four major business and personal challenges with you today, to show you how persistence got me through each of them.
 
As you read through them, think about your own challenges and how persistence might get you through those, especially with regard to starting up and running your own business.
 
I’ve owned 3 successful businesses in my lifetime (4 if you count the booming babysitting business I created as a teenager). Only one of them was easy.
 
Only one of them launched and went smoothly, growing as expected and becoming successful. The others? No way. Each one was so hard that most people would have thrown in the towel and given up.
 
Challenge #1: Network marketing.
 
The first was my network marketing business. I began doing home parties for Princess House Crystal to put myself through college. I begged, borrowed, bullied and cajoled my friends to have parties for me.
 
I went through 5 parties, and I bombed, big time. No more parties. For months. But I didn’t quit. I kept going to meetings, learning, going to other people’s parties to see how they did it, and talking to everyone I could about having a party for me.
 
After six months, I finally convinced someone to have a party, and three people booked parties from there. My business took off after that, and I began winning awards, prizes, trips, and earning more money than I’d ever seen up to that point.
 
Over 7 years I built that business up to be hugely successful.
 
Until the day I collapsed on the floor right before a Rally I was producing, and I couldn’t get up. At all. Seriously.
 
Challenge #2: Serious illness.
 
I was sick, in bed 90% of the time for 10 years. No, that’s not a misprint. 10 years. I had severe mercury poisoning and chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome. Other people who were as sick as I was gave up. They succumbed permanently to hopelessness, depression and worse.
 
There’s a high suicide rate among people with CFS. But once again, persistence made the difference. I kept going to different doctors, trying different things, until finally, one day, I found a doctor who could help me.
 
Within 6 months I was on my feet again and starting another business. That business was the easy one (well, everyone deserves a break, don’t you think?), so we’ll skip that one.
 
Challenge #3: Coaching
 
Let’s fast forward to my coaching business. First I spent 10 years as a Life Coach, doing things the hard way, struggling to hit 6 figures and never getting there, while raising my young boys.
 
Then I got fed up and began investing big-time in marketing coaches, doing programs, and training so I could have the business I wanted.
 
I’ll bet you think it was easy from then on. Nope.
 
First I spent $5000 on a website for a niche that wasn’t viable at all, so I had to let go of that (and no, it’s not any easier for me to let go of 5k than it would be for you!).
 
Then I spent a year and a half on a niche that had a little success, but ultimately wasn’t going anywhere.
 
Finally, once I found the right niche for me (3rd try is the charm, right?), it still didn’t take off the way I would have liked.
 
And my husband, the major breadwinner, was laid off from his job, his field collapsed and he couldn’t find a job for literally years.
 
My business built slowly but steadily over two years, before it could support my family. In the meantime I went through my life savings. Most people would have quit and gotten a nine to five J-O-B.
 
Not me. I remembered Calvin Coolidge.
 
Challenge #4: Starting a family.
 
By the way, after I recovered from my illness, starting a family wasn’t easy either. That also took years of persistence before I succeeded.
 
So you see, just about every success I’ve ever had in life required my sticking it out for longer than the average Jane. So please don’t ever look at my success and think I have something you just don’t have. It’s not true.
 
I have only ONE true thing that makes me a success, and you can have it too.
 
Persistence. It’s omnipotent.