Getting Beyond ‘The Splat’

I came across this article in Word for Today and it resonated with me especially with the present situation many of us find ourselves in. Most of us have experienced the ‘Splat’ over the past 12 months and it’s not easy.
 
 
Getting beyond ‘The Splat’
 
“The story is told of a traveller who met a guru along the road and asked him, ‘Where’s the road to success?’ The bearded sage didn’t speak but instead pointed to a place off in the far distance.
 
The man, thrilled at the prospect of quick and easy success, rushed off in the appropriate direction. Splat! Down he went! He limped back, bruised and stunned.
 
Assuming he must have misinterpreted the message, he repeated his question, and again the philosopher pointed silently in the same direction. So the traveller took off once more.
 
This time the splat was deafening. Crawling back bloody, broken, and irate, he shouted at the guru, ‘I asked you which way is success! I followed the direction you indicated, and all I got was splattered! No more pointing – talk!’
 
Only then did the sage speak. ‘Success is that way. It’s just a little beyond the splat.’ The fact is all of us have experienced ‘the splat’.
 
There’s no way to avoid it. But it’s what we do after the splat that makes all the difference. And perseverance always wins. The Bible says: ‘Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’
 
Champion racer Rick Mears is attributed with saying: ‘To finish first, you must first finish.’ So if you’ve fallen, get up again and keep going.
 
American educator Hamilton Holt said: ‘Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Half effort does not produce half results. It produces no results. Work, continuous work and hard work, is the only way to accomplish results that last.’
 
So the word for today is – keep persevering and you’ll win.”
 
  
How do you respond?
 
This links well with one of my favourite quotes ‘It’s not what happens to you in life which counts it’s how you respond which makes all the difference.’
 
In all walks of life, it’s how we deal with failure, disappointment, pain and injustice which determines our future path. We can give up when the pain gets too much, or we can get back up and go again.
  
There are many examples of people who have faced ‘the end’ but have gone past that pain with sheer persistence and have achieved success beyond ‘The Splat’
  
 
Henry Ford: While Ford is today known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars, he wasn’t an instant success. In fact, his early businesses failed and left him broke five time before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.
 
Soichiro Honda: The billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures. Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation, after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbours, finally started his own business.
 
Akio Morita: You may not have heard of Morita, but you’ve undoubtedly heard of his company, Sony. Sony’s first product was a rice cooker that unfortunately didn’t cook rice so much as burn it, selling less than 100 units. This first setback didn’t stop Morita and his partners as they pushed forward to create a multi-billion-dollar company.
 
Bill Gates: Gates didn’t seem like a shoo-in for success after dropping out of Harvard and starting a failed first business with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data. While this early idea didn’t work, Gates’ later work did, creating the global empire that is Microsoft.
 
Harland David Sanders: Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.
 
Walt Disney: Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world, but Walt Disney himself had a bit of a rough start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After that, Disney started a number of businesses that didn’t last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.
 
 
They all faced ‘The Splat’
 
All these and millions of others have faced failure and rejection, but they carried on. That in a nutshell is the secret to success. If you give up, then you fail but if you carry on and fight through each challenge then success is just over the hill.
  
Work, continuous work and hard work, is the only way to accomplish results that last.’
  
Thoughts for the week: 

1. What are you facing right now and how are you dealing with it?
2. Can you get back up and try one more time?
3. This week be inspired by today’s blog and get off the canvass.
4. Face up to that challenge, look it straight in the eye and knock it out!

 
That’s it for this week have a great weekend and keep scrapping.
 
Warm regards

John

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