Do you need to have suffered to be successful?
I read a lot. I read motivational, inspirational and self-help books and there is one recurring similarity amongst nearly all the authors. They all seem to have had a particularly traumatic or deprived period in their life.
So does this make the difference between success and failure? I don’t have the answer to that but would love to know the statistics.
From Oprah Winfrey to Suze Orman, Denis Duffield Thomas and on to the likes of Maya Angelou and Louise Hay, they have all suffered terrible times in earlier years only to rise from the ashes and hit the heights of success.
From poverty and rape to teenage pregnancies, mental and physical abuse, these women have suffered in a way I can’t even imagine. So did this make a difference in their determination to succeed?
Do you have to have suffered extreme hardship to gain that desperation to make a different life for yourself? Is it more difficult to come from a secure, happy and comfortable background and make it to the top?
Perhaps the answer is yes.
Maybe, being surrounded by home comforts, and knowing there is someone there to turn to and take care of us if it all goes wrong, gives us such a sense of security that we do not drive ourselves as hard as though who have no one to turn to and nowhere to go if they fail.
I work incredibly hard and very long hours to build my own business, but ultimately, if it all fails, I have a very nice home with a roof over my head and my husband to take care of me. If I was living alone and in danger of losing my home, would I work even harder or find different ways to be 100% sure I made it the success I want it to be? Would that desperation to remove myself from a certain situation drive me all the more harder?
Whether we come from comfortable backgrounds or not, in order to be successful we have to have our internal drive. I am not wholly sure where mine comes from and I didn’t suffer any particularly traumatic period in my life that I can pinpoint, or remember. If I had, would I have already achieved the pinnacle of success I am striving for before now?
As I said before, I don’t have the answers here but it is a thought that has come into my mind more than once.
I would love to know your opinions on this subject. Leave a comment below or pop over to the Facebook page and let me know your thoughts.
With much love
Angie x
