You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!

One of the best pieces of advice I ever gained was from a poster at my old church when I was 22 or so years of age. We all know the type – one of those traditional motivational posters with some well meaning phrase designed to get us all excited…

While I have seen and enjoyed many of these, this one INSTANTLY changed my perspective about life!

The photo was of an old basketball hoop that hadn’t seen a ball aimed it in many years. Paint was peeling off the backboard, the wall was water damaged and spider webs clung to a forlorn and rusty hoop…

Underneath was written:

Then the words that changed my life…

Immediately I was hit by the incredible truth of the statement… It was so true, and was a core attribute of successful people. Successful people don’t give up!!! They just keep going and going until they get the results they want.

On most occasions they weren’t the most intelligent, the loudest or the bravest. 99% of the time they were just the most persistent – pressing on when everyone else gave up!

Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!” Even this great man would have been tempted to stop when failure cursed him again and again. However he just dusted himself off and tried another approach until he got something that worked!

In today’s Playstation world, it’s easy to sit down and be comfortable, yet not go anywhere or achieve anything of value in life. I encourage you today to take some risks, be daring and look a bit of a fool if necessary.

Today belongs to you, only if you seize it by both hands and have a shot!