Hero (29 page)

PETER BURWASH

I was not disturbed by the criticism as much as I felt like I was going down the right path.

“So many times I have been told that it can’t be done. Again and again, I’ve had to use every ounce of perseverance to make it happen.”

Howard Schultz

Chairman and CEO of Starbucks

Naysayers can also serve to redirect you on to another, better path. You might have fixed in your mind the way you think your dream will happen, and as you follow that way, you meet with naysayers who are decision-makers, and they stop your dream in its tracks. Without being able to go any further you’re forced to look for another way, and you find another way to achieve your dream that is far superior to the path you were on – thanks to the naysayers. Bless them!

PETER FOYO

When I run into people who are extremely negative, they’re actually a lead into where I’m going. They direct me even faster in the right direction versus drawing me back.

PETER BURWASH

When I was playing in Canada, the president of the tennis association at the time wrote me a letter and said, “You should give up the game because you’re so bad.” And rather than see that as a hurdle I saw that as a challenge. When I returned to Canada to play in the national championships, I was getting ready to change ends and serve for the final game of the match. I took out the letter where this guy says I was so bad, and yet here I was about to win the national championships.

Ignore the Trivial Many

A valuable piece of advice you might want to consider for your journey is to instill belief and conviction in yourself before you tell other people about your dream. If you start telling people about your dream too soon, you may be disheartened by their responses and give up before you’ve really begun. This has happened to many people before, and it could even have happened to you. You got a great idea to do something that was not within your usual expertise, you shared it with others, they filled you with doubt, and your idea and dream were shut down before you could even get them off the ground. Then, as fate would have it, some time later you discover that the great idea you once had has materialized in the world through someone else – and it became a great success.

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

Pay attention to the vital few. Ignore the trivial many.

LIZ MURRAY

Be careful letting other people define things for you. People have their opinions and they’re very quick to tell you what’s possible and what’s impossible. It’s unfortunate the conviction that people speak with. No one knows what’s possible until they’re already doing it. No one.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Mark Twain

Author

When I decided to make
The Secret,
I didn’t tell another person about my dream until I had it fully formulated in my mind. I spent four months researching, planning, and integrating it within me, until I knew no one could dissuade me. Only then did I share it with others, when a thousand naysayers could have said my dream would never happen and not one of them would have affected me.

Work on your dream, work on your belief in your dream, and formulate your dream in your mind until the picture of it is crystal clear before you share it with others.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

When I was growing up surfing at Manly Beach, there would be two guys on my right telling me to get out of the water and two guys on my left saying, “We think you’re great, and we enjoyed surfing with you.” So who do you think I’m going to listen to? The two guys on my left, of course.

PETE CARROLL

What gave me the strength to really grow from getting fired and come out of it stronger was that I didn’t sanction the decision. I just didn’t accept it. I challenged the thought that they were right and I knew that there was reason to feel otherwise.

The truth about naysayers is they are often people who have closed their minds and are not living their full potential themselves. If they were living their full potential they would know from their own experience that anything is possible.

JOHN PAUL DEJORIA

When I was in the eleventh grade, in front of the whole class our business teacher told my friend Michelle and me that we would never amount to anything. We knew he was wrong. We would definitely do something with our lives. Michelle became a superstar. That’s Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.

I had many experiences with naysayers when we were making
The Secret
film, but one stands out above all the others. I was doing a presentation of the first cut of the film to a large group of television executives. It had taken a year of work and sacrificing everything I had to get to that point. And at the end of the screening the executives responded to the film with not a single compliment. Instead, they were severely critical, and found fault with every aspect of the film. I left the presentation in shock, and in a daze I wandered the streets after leaving the building where the meeting was held. Eventually I pulled myself together and headed to the airport for the one-hour flight home. On that flight I realized there was no way I could possibly resolve all of the executives’ endless criticisms. And I didn’t need to. By the time the plane landed I had been inspired with a few changes that could be made to the film. We followed those inspirations and put them into the film, and they were the very elements that would go on to make the film a huge success.

Allies

While you will almost certainly encounter naysayers on your Hero’s Journey, you are also destined to meet many, many allies, angels already in your life or who appear, even if only briefly, to support you and help you on your journey.