Beyond the Rhetoric

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

Life isn’t easy. I think most of us can accept that we are going to face challenges and hardships along the way, but it’s important to perceive these as learning opportunities. It is through these opportunities that we can grow, evolve and mature. At the same time, criticism and negative experiences can be seriously disheartening.

The bricks thrown at you can injure and impede. That’s absolutely true. But as David Brinkley tells us above, these can also be great opportunities for growth. You need material to build that foundation and the most successful people are also those who are the most resourceful. They can take something that may have been negative and turn them into a positive.

David Brinkley was a ten-time Emmy Award-winning newscaster who worked with both NBC and ABC. He surely heard his fair share of negative criticism, but he was able to take those bricks and build them into a highly successful 50+ year broadcasting career. He’s also a published author, perhaps best known for Washington Goes to War, a “social history” about how World War II changed the American capital.

If you want to be innovative and groundbreaking, you will face criticism. You will have your haters. The key is taking it all in stride and being to build something greater. Don’t throw those bricks back; keep them and use them to your advantage.

Tags: attitude, memorable quotes, success

Filed under Personal Development.