By Prince Adeniyi Okikiola
If you’ve ever done any sales training, the old adage goes that the ratio of ‘no’s’ to ‘yes’s’ is 9 to 1. So it takes nine ‘no’s’ to get to a ‘yes’.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you know this isn’t true.
Sylvester Stallone had to survive over 1,500 rejections before he got Rocky to be made on his terms (many by the same agents multiple times).
Thomas Edison had to endure thousands of attempts to invent a reliable, commercial version of a light bulb before succeeding, famously saying “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Walt Disney was rejected over 302 times from banks before he got funding.
Jack London was given over 650 rejection slips (which he stuck in a pile on a tall spindle next to his typewriter) before getting a yes.
Colonel Sanders failed to sell his chicken recipe over 1,000 times before deciding to start KFC to sell it himself.
James Dyson said “I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one.” Today his inventions have made him worth $5 billion.
As an entrepreneur, it doesn’t take 9 ‘no’s’ to get to 1 ‘yes’.
It can take hundreds - or even thousands of rejections or failures - before your first big success.
That’s why most people give up before they get there.
“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~ Thomas Edison
Imagine if one of the inventors, writers or entrepreneurs above gave up after getting their 20th, 50th or 100th rejection or failure?
But if - like them - you persist and learn from each failure, the success eventually comes. Then the next success comes sooner, the next comes faster, and eventually success breeds success.
The payoff is in the persistence, and the redemption is in the reward for those who persevere.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you DO NOT STOP.” #KeepStriving
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