Success Requires You to Develop Thicker Skin

If at first you don’t succeed… be prepared to get up again and again until you do.

The journey to success — socially and professionally — is often about being visible in one way or another. It’s always about having to talk to people and share something about you. In putting yourself out there — whether it’s raising your hand to share an idea or an opinion, to ask a question or introduce yourself to a roomful of strangers, or whether it’s to pitch your product or share your creativity — you are rendering yourself vulnerable.

It’s about exposure. And when you look around, you’ll see that most people tend to self protect by keeping themselves to themselves. They avoid the kind of risk that exposing who they are and how they think may bring. And that’s ok, but success requires you to court exposure.

You may have to defend your opinions and speak in public. You might have to give interviews or stand in front of a panel of investors and ask for money. You may have to pitch your ideas to an editor or publisher. You will most likely need to write content and regularly post it publicly.

But none of that will break you. As long as you accept one thing: you will sometimes get knocked down, pushed back, overlooked and undermined, but it’s the getting back on your feet that is the most important obligation you have if you really want to be successful. Like that fresh green stem with delicate new leaves, relentlessly finding a way up through the crack in the concrete, masking the true strength of its roots beneath the surface.

Now that might be harder going if you have grown up experiencing that kind of hardship in any way. If, say, as an outsider, you are conflicted between wanting to be successfully visible but struggling with the discomfort that exposure can bring. In that case I recommend my article on the topic:?If You Ever Felt Like an Outsider, Trying to Be Noticed is Extra Hard

But the next step in your visibility journey is all about the getting back up. Put a bandaid on the wound and keep moving. Failure is subjective really. Because the knock downs can not only teach you so much about your weaknesses as they get exposed, they then help you heal them better. They also allow you to refine your skill and reinforce your focus. And they also develop in you a certain resilience. And that is what will ensure you reach your goals.

Developing a thicker skin is about realising that there is nothing personal in adversity. I know that while so many in the world appear to be pushing back against the difficulties we, in our silos, face - and rightly so - it may seem that the message is that you should never have to experience challenges in the first place. Please understand, that mindset will turn you avoidant, self entitled and ultimately weaker. Life is full of challenges. For everyone. It is in how you respond to them that will determine your results.

In many ways, you should welcome such tests because they are your opportunity to discover your innate power. All of these attributes will become invaluable to you as you progress. Dare to turn adversity back on itself. Allow it to make you stronger, better, relentless. And in terms of visibility, there is nothing more admirable than witnessing someone who is is both humble enough to accept the falls and determined enough to get back up on their feet because they realise it’s all par for the course.

Success is about how well you fail and how willing you are to keep going.