The Problem with Success Stories

You’ve read the stories.

• “Melanie Perkins was rejected by over 100 venture capitalists. Her design site Canva is now valued at $20 billion.”
• “J.K Rowling was turned down by 12 publishing houses. Today, more than 500 million copies of Harry Potter have been sold worldwide.”
• “James Dyson created 5,127 different prototypes of a bagless vacuum cleaner over 15 years. He pitched it to British retailers who rejected it. He’s now worth $7.1 billion.”

These stories motivate us. They’re uplifting and hopeful. They teach us you can be successful if you never give up.

The problem is, for most of us, it's just not true. Grit and determination are not synonymous with success.

For every "unicorn" company, there are thousands of startups that fail. Tens of thousands of writers are tapping away on laptops, inspired by J.K. Rowling, most of whom won't publish a page. Engineers are tinkering with their own prototypes. Almost all will fail.

There will be no stories written about these people. Don't bother looking. Stories belong to the winners. Their stories fool us into believing success is the norm.

So we battle on, persevere and stay in the game. We hold onto jobs, businesses and relationships well past their use-by dates.

But success is not the norm. It takes courage and wisdom to know when to walk away. You haven’t lost or failed. You’ve won back time to pursue another path, and maybe another one after that.

Give yourself permission to fail. What’s coming next could be way more fulfilling than the “thing” you’re holding on to.