In these challenging times, the road to what we want out of life has definitely got harder!
It reminds me of an experience I had in August 1991, I had just finished my bakery apprenticeship and had been studying accountancy through night school.
I had no experience of working in an office and realized that if I was to continue my accountancy studies, I needed to get a job and gain real practical experience.
My plan was to do up a CV, get 300 of them printed off and deliver them to all the accountancy firms in Dublin.
I even put in my cover letter, ‘as I was determined to obtain a position in the field of accountancy, my salary expectations were not high’.
Surely, out of that many job applications, someone would be interested!
On a cold rainy morning, I got on my pushbike, put my green saddlebags on the back with the CVs, put my raincoat on and cycled off.
I spent a week delivering the CVs all over Dublin.
Then I waited……….
In the first week, I got about 20 replies, all saying ‘they were not taking on people’. The job situation was not good in Ireland at that time.
The second week, another batch of ‘Dear John letters arrived’, with the same message.
On week three, I got a very interesting letter from Francis McLean & Co.,
Dear Mark,
Thank you for your recent letter and CV.
I am sorry to say that we have absolutely no capacity to take on any staff, even though we are inundated with requests from relations, friends, clients and complete strangers on behalf of themselves, sons, daughters, nieces and nephews.
I will keep your CV on file in case it becomes of interest in the future.
Yours sincerely,
Frank McClean
All in all, out of the 300 CVs, I got 99 replies all with the same message.
The road to genuine personal attainment is not straight, wide and downhill.
It’s often rough, tough, twisting, narrow and a steep climb.
The big challenge is, are we ready for the setbacks along the way?
Or do we give up and stop trying?
I did eventually manage to get a low-level starting position in a company in their accounts department.
In my experience from working with my clients as a leadership expert, the biggest difference between the people who succeed and those who do not is resilience – the refusal to give up.
The road to what we want out of life is not smooth.
Do you have the RESILIENCE to keep going?
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