Tag: DealingWithDoubt

Famous Failures – Walt Disney

Posted on by Chris Mahan

It’s hard to believe that the “happiest place on earth” was the creation of someone who grew up in a household that was about as far from happy as you can image.

Meet Walt Disney. It’s another name that is well known throughout the world. Disney has come a long way from a cartoon mouse that Walt drew by hand to the latest Disney movie, Raya and the Last Dragon which was created with a budget of over 100 million dollars.

However, Disney never set out to become a household name. In fact, his beginnings have a whole lot more to do with escaping from a bad situation and trying to find his place in the world.

Walt Disney grew up with a father so cruel and abusive that Walt’s elder brothers couldn’t leave home soon enough. Walt himself made his escape before he was considered an adult. He tried to enlist in the army to fight in WWI but was rejected because of his age. So, he lied about his age in order to get a position as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. When the Red Cross sent him to France, Walt arrived after the war had already ended.

With such rough beginnings, it should come as no surprise young Walt kept drawing as a way to hold onto his sanity in difficult times. After the war, he tried to make a living off his drawings, first as an apprentice to an animation studio, then later in a studio of his own, which he formed with his friend Ub Iwerks. That business failed due to the inability to gain customers. He then created an animation business with a co-worker by the name of Fred Harman, but that business went bankrupt within a few years.

Not one to be easily put off by failure, Disney dug in his heels and tried again. He headed for California, which he felt would become the epicenter for the movie industry, and set up shop. Here he had success with Oswald, a cartoon rabbit that the public loved. So did the unscrupulous people he was working with. His animators were stolen right out from under him, as was the very character he’d created.

Most people probably would have quit somewhere around here. Not Walt. He instead created a mouse named Mickey and kept going.

From there, Disney never rested. He tried his hand at a full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which became very successful. On the other hand, he also tried things that were considered ‘flops,’ such as Fantasia and Pinocchio. His was a career full of ups and downs. When he opened Disneyland, just about everything that could go wrong, did. Instead of throwing in the towel, Walt simply dug in and worked harder to make it the success he knew it could be.

The life of Walt Disney teaches us many things. First, it doesn’t matter where you begin. The point is to get started. Second, you can’t let disaster get you down. You simply need to pull yourself up and move on without looking back. No matter where you are in life, keep going. The only thing that can hold you back is you.

Famous Failures – Jeff Bezos

Posted on by Chris Mahan

If you wanted to compare prices on a product, do you know where 9 out of 10 buyers go online to do so? Do you know which online seller sells more than 12 million products annually? Which online seller averages more than 200 million unique visitors per month? The answer to all three questions is Amazon.

In 2020, Amazon’s net revenue was more than $386 Billion.

Yes, that’s BILLIONS.

From an early age, Amazon’s founder & CEO, Jeff Bezos wanted to be known as someone smart. As a kid, his heroes included Thomas Edison, which makes sense, considering his dreams involved building something no one had ever seen before. To get there, he realized he had to be highly educated on multiple topics. With that in mind, he read profusely and drank in as much knowledge as he could. As a result, he became a top student at an elite university. Upon graduation, he worked for smart startups before eventually selling everything and heading for Seattle to try doing something entirely new all on his own.

With only $10,000 to start and a load of debt, Jeff and his wife began selling books online out of their garage. At the time, few paid any attention to them. After all, who would want to buy books online? Even his parents expected him to fail. To everyone’s surprise, the online bookstore, named after the longest river in the world, succeeded. Within 3 years, he’d made $54 million and wasn’t about to stop there.

Jeff Bezos saw how the world was changing around him. People were going to the internet for more than memes. Over the next several years, Jeff dipped his toe into many things, expanding Amazon to include everything from travel services to groceries. Not everything worked, the aforementioned travel services, for example. Yet other things took off like a rocket. Now, millions of people worldwide do their shopping for everything from above ground pools to zucchini on Amazon.

The exciting thing to learn here involves taking chances. When you look over the history of Amazon since its inception almost 27 years ago, you’ll find a lot of great ideas alongside some that weren’t great at all. (Anyone remember the Amazon Fire Phone?) Some of those mistakes cost the company millions. The point is that Jeff never gave up. He was willing to take risks. Which is how a company that entered the stock market at $1.96 a share in the 1990s came to be worth $3057 per share at the writing of this article.

What can you learn from Jeff Bezos?

Don’t be afraid to try. If you fail, it’s not a big deal. Get up. Try again. Keep trying until you make it. Keep trying until, like Jeff Bezos, you find what you’re good at and succeed.

Famous Failures – Stephen King

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Who comes to mind when you think of famous authors? To readers and non-readers alike, Stephen King will almost always show up near the top of everyone’s list.

Why does everyone know his name?

Stephen King exemplifies the sort of success story every author dreams of. Not only are his books popular, but many of them have been adapted quite successfully for television and as movies. He’s known all around the world as being one of the great storytellers of the weird and creepy.

So, what’s his story? And how does his story apply to yours?

Stephen King was a writer at heart all the way back to his school days when he used to scribble out short stories for his friends. Writing wasn’t his original career ambition, though. He’d set out to become a teacher, and only resorted to writing when he couldn’t find a job in his field.

However, writing didn’t come easily either. When writing his first novel, Carrie, he was plagued with massive self-doubt – so much so he threw away his initial attempts. But with the encouragement of those around him, he went on to finish the book, got it published and watched as it turned into a great success.

Too much success.

The stress of having to produce another book when his first had proven so popular caused Stephen King to question himself further. He didn’t feel he was equal to the task and started drinking heavily. This was the beginning of a struggle with alcoholism that would nearly ruin him.

In the end, he persevered. He forced himself to seek out help for the problems holding him back. He didn’t let alcoholism destroy him and went on to achieve significant accomplishments. Now he’s one of the most recognized authors in the world. He has sold more than 350 million books worldwide, has published 63 novels (including 7 published under the pen name Richard Bachman), 5 non-fiction books and written more than 200 short stories.

Stephen King’s story is important because it addresses a malady that many people, regardless of profession, fall victim to. It is that prevailing belief that we are not good enough. Most everyone has moments where they feel like they’re not good enough at something. Sometimes they resort to unhealthy ways of dealing with the pressure when they feel like they can’t perform to some unattainable standard set by themselves or by those who influence them. Some people, much like Stephen King, resort to drugs or alcohol to cope when it all seems too much.

What we need to remember is this: We are more capable than we think. No matter how far we’ve fallen, no matter how much we feel like we can’t…we CAN. It may not be easy, but we must make the decision to get up and keep going. We need to write that next word, we need to put in that next hour of work, we need to try one more time until we achieve what we would have called impossible only a short time ago.

Famous Failures – Albert Einstein

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Stupid. Failure. No good. Idiot.

Albert Einstein heard all these phrases about himself and more. Growing up was tough for young Einstein. He didn’t express himself well and he struggled in school. Even his teachers gave up on him, deciding that he was impossible to teach. Those around him considered him mentally retarded, and no one thought he would ever make anything of himself.

 

This doesn’t sound like an auspicious beginning for someone who is considered to be one of the greatest geniuses of all time, does it?

Einstein seemed to meet failure at every turn. He wished to attend the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology but had to take the entrance exam twice before he was admitted. Even then, his troubles weren’t over. His teachers laughed at his ideas, calling his doctoral dissertation “irrelevant and fanciful.” After college, no one thought much about him. He worked in a patent office. A situation which turned out to be perfect because the work was so mindless giving him plenty of time to think.

And think he did. A lot!

Albert Einstein used his extra time to work out several theories. In fact, he became so caught up in his ideas, he grew absent-minded and oblivious to the world around him. In the grand scheme of things, maybe it didn’t matter quite so much whether he forgot to wear socks with his shoes. The important thing was what he developed, what he created in those deep thoughts. From the Theory of Relativity to every one his subsequent theories, it soon became evident that Albert Einstein’s thoughts were considerable. So much so that he became a professor himself, and even won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Imagine what his critics had to say about him then!

From Albert Einstein, we should learn not to let the world define us. No one truly knows what you’re capable of but you. Even if you don’t always express your ideas well, it doesn’t mean those ideas don’t have merit.

Albert Einstein is also an excellent example of what it means to do your own thing. His ideas didn’t mesh with the way people typically thought about the world. Even in his lifetime, not everyone saw things his way. This didn’t stop him from expressing himself and standing by what he said.

So be smart like Einstein. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with the world. More importantly, never let anyone else tell you what you can do. That’s for you to show them.

 

5 Tips for Getting a Grip on Self-Doubt

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Did you know that a whopping 85 percent of people have low self-esteem to some degree? This issue can affect our personal and professional lives, including our careers, our health, and even our salaries. In other words, self-doubt and low self-esteem can keep us from reaching our peak potential.

Low self-esteem is a personality trait that often develops in childhood and either exacerbates or diminishes with time. If self-doubt plagues you, read on to learn how to get a grip on this potentially debilitating issue.

Know You’re Not Alone

Even the most successful people have doubts every now and again. They may find themselves questioning their actions and wondering what the right thing is to do. How do they harness those doubts?

It helps to focus on building your confidence and self-esteem. You might never get rid of your doubts entirely, but you can stop them from taking over your life. Here are five tips you can use to help determine when to listen to the inner voice of self-doubt.

Accept Yourself

Self-doubt is part of being human. Embrace it and turn it into a strength. When used correctly, this personality trait can help you make better decisions. It can cause you to give pause before making an impulsive decision. Think of it as a tool that guides your actions and keeps you from making costly mistakes. I view self-doubt as one aspect of our inner voice.

Just make sure you are making the conscious decision when to listen to your inner voice and when to ignore it. If you allow it to have unfettered influence over you, it can become detrimental to your well-being and success. Unbridled, self-doubt can make you question your sanity and decision-making abilities.

Get the Facts

Your doubts don’t necessarily reflect the truth. Most times, they mirror your fears and emotional struggles. If not challenged, they can convince you are, and have always been, a failure. But that isn’t the truth, is it? Think about your achievements and how hard you worked to get where you are today. Be proud of yourself and admire your capabilities.

Whenever doubt arises, get the facts straight. Don’t act on incomplete information. Research the issue in question, weigh the pros and cons of possible responses, and don’t hesitate to seek the guidance of trusted friends and associates.

Acknowledge Your Strengths

Make a list of things you excel in. Write down your skills and accomplishments. Accept praise from others gracefully and acknowledge your talent.

Celebrate your strengths every single day. Make positive affirmations and remind yourself how much you’ve done so far. Stop thinking of what you could have done better and focus instead on the positive things. In other words, don’t beat yourself up – build yourself up!

Often, your inner critic may tell you that you are incapable of accomplishing a certain task or goal. If you are acutely aware of your past successes, you can immediately counter your inner critic with examples of when you were successful in the past in accomplishing this task or goal or something similar.

Choose Your Friends Wisely

Negative people can drag you down and ruin your self-esteem. Nothing will ever be good enough for them. That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people who support you and listen to you instead of judging.

Do you best to limit your exposure to toxic individuals. Some you cannot avoid entirely because they are co-workers or family. However, you can still control how much time you allow yourself to be exposed to their venomous talk.

Define Your Values

Lastly, define the values you live by daily. Having a clear set of life values will provide you with a filter you can use to determine if your inner voice is helping or hurting you. They will enable you to have a more realistic perspective of your current situation which will in turn allow you to determine the validity of what your inner voice is saying. Focus on the thoughts and attitudes that drive your actions, move you forward toward your goals and are at the core of your beliefs.

Overcoming self-doubt and taming your inner critic is a lifelong process. Learn to tame your inner critic so it isn’t questioning every decision. Don’t allow your inner critic and self-doubt to cause you to waste time and energy overanalyzing every situation along with your possible responses. Instead, build your self-confidence and learn to trust your decisions. Then, act and put your plans in motion.

To learn more about taming your inner critic, visit my Life Coaching website.