Stories of Historical Icons Overcoming Obstacles

Curious how setbacks can actually become your stepping stones to success? Discover the transformative power of resilience in today's episode of Don't Fear Grit with Rob Taormina. We'll unravel the inspirational journeys of icons like Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, and Michael Jordan, showing that even the most successful people face formidable obstacles. Learn how these luminaries didn't just overcome their challenges—they leveraged them to soar to greater heights.

Join us as we dive into the essence of becoming an overcomer. From Michael Jordan's early basketball rejections to J.K. Rowling's countless manuscript refusals, these stories will show you that setbacks are merely setups for your comeback. Tune in to get the motivation and strategies you need to turn your own setbacks into springboards for success.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The show is about to start in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
This is Don't Fear Grit, withRob Taormina marketing
strategies and advertisingtechnologies to help you build a

(00:22):
better business.
What's up everyone, Welcomeback to everyone's favorite
podcast, Don't Fear Grit.
I'm your host, as always, robTaramina, and today we got a
little treat.
It's something motivational andit's a quote don't let setbacks
set you back.
You've probably heard it many,many times.
It might be a quote on a posteror a meme that you've put on
Facebook, or a scripture, maybeit's even in your email

(00:46):
signature, but it's a profoundstatement that we need to pay
attention a little bit more to,because everyone in life,
regardless of levels ofexperience or success, are going
to experience a setback.
They're going to have thisobstacle that they approach.
Now, how they handle theobstacle is going to be really

(01:08):
defined by how you understandthat particular quote of don't
let setbacks set you back,because if you let allow an
obstacle to become an immovableobject, now that's a thing
that's preventing you frommoving forward and that's as
good as it gets.
The people who learn toovercome the obstacle, they

(01:29):
figure out how to go through it,around it or over it.
They are overcomers, and that'sa central theme to today's
discussion is we all need to doa much better job of becoming
overcomers.
To do a much better job ofbecoming overcomers because the
reality of any situation thatwe're in is we're going to be
faced with obstacles.

(01:50):
We're gonna be faced with thesesetbacks.
We can't let them define us,they can't let us prevent us
from moving forward.
So what's the solution?
Becoming a better overcomer.
Now you'll be surprised, whenwe look at history, how many
successful people, people thatwe all look at as being highly

(02:11):
successful.
These are all people that hadobstacles, major setbacks,
things that other people wouldlook at and be like.
You know what?
I would understand why younever fill in the blank achieve
success as a comedian, achievesuccess as an actor, achieve
success as a doctor, achievesuccess as an entrepreneur right

(02:32):
, we understand, because of thisobstacle.
However, here's a list ofpeople that didn't look at the
obstacle as the end, but theysimply became an overcomer.
Check out this list of namesand then we'll get it into the
details of their examples.
We have Oprah Winfrey, albertEinstein, jk Rowling, michael

(02:53):
Jordan, abraham Lincoln, bethanyHamilton, jim Carrey, tyler
Perry, benjamin Franklin, Perry,benjamin Franklin, bill Gates.
These are all people I could goon and on A list of people who
had serious setbacks in theirlife but didn't let those
setbacks prevent them frommoving forward.

(03:17):
They figured out a way ofbecoming an overcomer, which
then eventually led them toexperience boatloads of success.
So here's an example.
We maybe, maybe you don't, soI'll fill you in.
We know that Michael Jordan,for example, was someone who
didn't make his high schoolbasketball team but then later

(03:40):
on became arguably the bestbasketball player in the history
of the NBA.
We have Jim Carrey, everyone'sfavorite comedian right, and he
was someone at the age of 15 whodropped out of school just to
try to help support his family.
Setbacks, obstacles, challengesthat other people in these

(04:03):
situations, especially observingthose situations would be like.
You know what I understand, whyyou haven't achieved this great
success, why you haven'tachieved and be able to
accomplish your dream?
Because you had a setback, andit's an understandable one.
Well, these people didn't lookat setbacks as the end of their
road, the end of their journey,the end of their story.
They simply looked at how am Igoing to overcome the moment?

(04:27):
How am I going to get throughthe wall, go around the wall?
Do I have to go over the walland then, all of a sudden, it
opened up this world ofopportunity for them.
That if they simply stopped intheir tracks and allowed the
obstacle to become thisimmovable object, then that was
as good as it got for them.

(04:48):
Think about your own life.
Think about times in your ownlife where you were, you
approached this particularobstacle in life, whether it be
personal, with your family,whether it be professional, as
an entrepreneur or at your job,and these obstacles you felt
like in that moment, there's noway of me getting past this.
This is a challenge I cannotovercome.
However, let's think about thiswhat if you did?

(05:10):
What next, what would havehappened?
That's why I think what we needto figure out as a culture is,
instead of letting theseobstacles define who we are and
what our next move, or lackthereof, is, we need to become
more resilient as a culture andfigure out how can we become

(05:30):
overcomers so that we now havethe ability to overcome all of
these moments, so that we canturn setback into opportunity
and we could turn opportunityinto our success, instead of
allowing that setback to becomeour failure.
We don't want that forourselves, and it is possible
for everyone to be able toapproach those situations as an

(05:54):
overcomer now, and I think thenwe're going to start seeing a
lot more people with theseincredible success stories.
I want us to really hold on tothat as a truth, moving forward.
Even for people who've alreadyachieved great success in the
past, it doesn't have to be justyour past.
You can have more success inthe future if you don't allow

(06:17):
the setbacks to limit you.
And for those that have beentrying so hard to get to that
success but they have all thesesetbacks, well, let's get
creative, let's become anovercomer and figure out maybe
another way of getting throughthat challenge so that you can
experience it to your success.
Guys, I hope this inspired you,because it definitely has been

(06:40):
inspiring me and I wanted toshare this thought with you.
Did you guys think it's sort ofas profound as I'm thinking?
I think there's something to ithere.
I think together, as acommunity, we can unlock
something really, really specialtogether.
I'd love to hear from you guysListen, if you found value out
of this either yourself, listento it again, because let it
motivate you.
Maybe you know someone in yourlife who needs to hear this

(07:01):
particular message.
Take this particular episodeand share it with them, and let
it motivate them as well.
Guys, as always, don't fear theprocess and don't fear grit.
We'll see you next time.
Take care.