Re: Simon, you're on my list to interview...in the meantime...

Hi Jay,

> If you are reading this thread, would like
> to think and grow rich and the thought of
> the task in front of you hurts your
> head...understand that Thomas Edison failed
> over 10,000 times. I myself have only failed
> several hundred times. Abe Lincoln was
> social failure until the age of 40. I am
> younger than that. Point being, keep at it.
> You probably have a long time until you will
> hold your riches that are still in someone
> else's checking account.

Jay, that's very true.... When you read a lot of "success stories," this fact comes up over and over....

Many "overnight successes" were in fact toiling away in obscurity for many years before they "struck it big."

For example, many people may know of the British entrepreneur Richard Branson and his "Virgin" label -- from Virgin Airlines to Virgin Megastores to Virgin Cola.

Well, he started Virgin in the early 70s, and his company was pretty much just barely surviving for around a decade before he began to really strike it big.... It's clear when you read his autobiography. While he had some early successes -- for example, his early company Virgin Records debuted with Mike Oldfield and his album "Tubular Bells," which started the whole "new age" music movement.

A few years later, Virgin Records signed the infamous punk band the Sex Pistols -- but these successes only just barely covered the losses from the other bands he signed.... He had to keep struggling until he finally managed to strike it big in the early 1980s.... And, as they say, the rest is history. :)

Another example from the arts is Frank Herbert, the author of the "Dune" series of science fiction novels.... To many science fiction fans, "Dune" is considered to be one of the best sci-fi novels ever written. "Dune" was rejected by 23 publishers, one after another.... But Frank Herbert didn't give up, and finally was accepted by the 24th publisher he approached!

This lesson just keeps repeating itself.... Don't give up.

Everybody gets frustrated.... But some people stop, pull themselves back together, and then keep going....

One of the biggest "secrets" of successful people is really no secret at all.... It's tenacity.

- Dien Rice