Essential Elements to Professional Success

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time" - Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

When Thomas Edison was inventing the electric light bulb he certainly had his work cut out for him. Believe it or not after trying 10,000 times he had still not got a working bulb. And his response to someone who suggested he had failed...? - 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.' What happened after that? He succeeded.

How many times would you try to make something work in your career, team or business? 2 or 3 times? 5 times? 10 times? Do you keep going with an idea for as long as Edison? Would you keep trying after all those 'failures'?

No? Why not? Perhaps because most of us would lose faith in our idea or our ability to pull it off, lose motivation, decide it's just not possible.

So what was Edison's secret? How did he maintain his enthusiasm for and belief in his idea for so long and to such an outstanding level? How did he stay motivated?

First of all he must have truly believed his goal was possible for him to reach, he must have truly wanted to reach it and he must have known why he wanted to reach it.

Then there is a clue in that response 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.' Every time he tried a way that did not work he quite simply did not see that as a failure.

And he was right. It wasn't a failure because he now knew one more way that did not work. He had gained knowledge from the attempt.

Perhaps he might work out one reason why it did not work and make an alteration accordingly for the next attempt. And that would take him one step closer to his goal.

And that's one of the key messages here. It's not just 'don't give up - keep going', but also crucially 'if it's not working change the way you're doing it!' After all if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.

So if you've been struggling to see eye to eye with a member of staff - change your approach. If you are consistently unable to get out of the office before 7pm every night - make changes to your working methods. If your team aren't all pulling together in the same direction - make changes to your management style.

Think of something you are struggling with at the moment and ask yourself the following questions:

* 'What is stopping me from moving forward with this?'
Make a list.

* 'What are the possible ways round the obstacles?'
Make a list.

* 'What could I try differently this time?'
Make a list.

* 'What am I going to try differently this time?'
Commit to taking action and give yourself a realistic but challenging deadline for it.

And if you reach the point of giving up remember another gem from Thomas Edison... 'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'