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Something that many people do not realize about history’s iconic success stories is that many of these people failed over and over before achieving greatness. There is no shortage of people throughout history who have set out to do something and initially failed, but continued striving until they succeeded.

One such figure was Henry Ford. Most people know him as the founder of the Ford Motor Company and for his work developing the modern assembly line concept, but he was also an early failure. Ford had several businesses before his car company; he actually went broke five times before founding Ford Motor Company. He continued trying, and his car company is still an industry leader today.

Another former failure eventually became one of the most famous U.S. presidents in history. Abraham Lincoln served in the military as a captain, but was demoted to a private before his term of service ended. He also failed in several businesses, and even ran for several public offices without winning. His life was filled with early failures, but he kept trying and ended up saving the nation from tearing itself apart.

Unfortunately, not everyone gets to see their successes during their lifetime. Vincent Van Gogh completed over 800 paintings, but only sold one during his lifetime. He was often broke, but continued creating paintings because it was something he loved to do. Years after his death, Van Gogh is considered one of the greatest painters of all time.

A more modern success that experienced initial failure was Elvis Presley. In 1954, the manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired him after only one show, telling him, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” Elvis pressed on, and is now considered the King of Rock.

All of these great successes had one thing in common: their drive and refusal to give up. It is no coincidence that many people who failed but kept striving for greatness eventually achieved that greatness. These are not run-of-the-mill success stories; they are the greatest successes in each of their respective fields. Everyone fails at some point. The only difference between a failure and a success is the determination to keep trying.

[image by Thomas Hawk on flickr]

About the author:

Taylor Hodge contributed this article on behalf of Zintro.com – an Industry & Technical Experts Directory where you can find experts by geographic focus.

At Hummingbird Creative Group, we use the acronym SOAR to represent helping our clients to “Strategically Orient their companies to Achieve marketing Results.” In an economy like this, each of us should step back and brainstorm about new products and services we might offer based on insight gathering from clients and prospects to position our companies for success. Insight gathering is simply doing market research including competitive analysis, brand analysis and interviews to establish core facts, values, character and the market’s perception of your offerings, opportunities, targets and referring audiences. Interviewing customers and prospects through the use of case studies and surveys can help you understand what you are doing right, or wrong and how you could change what you are doing to better meet needs in the marketplace. Other things you might want to do to help you Strategically Orient your company to Achieve marketing Results include:

1. Take time away from your everyday business activities and analyze what you can do differently, such as pricing services differently to meet client needs or developing a new product or service that can help your customers get through this tough economy.

2. Write down your strategy before its implementation. By having a road map of what to do and how to achieve it, you are more likely to make it happen.

3. Explore and learn new media, such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets. These are inexpensive ways to spread the word about your company, and they can compliment traditional media efforts such as TV, radio and print media.

4. Make sure that your website is positioned correctly to reflect your competitive advantages and other branding messages. You might want to add a client area to your website, increase search engine optimization, or even redesign your site to reflect what you now offer.

5. Join organizations where you can be seen and heard by other businesses and develop positive one-on-one relationships to grow and nurture what you’re building through other mass media activities.

6. Consider outsourcing your branding efforts by hiring a marketing firm with capabilities to do strategic planning, writing, design, interactive and new media planning. Outsourcing is usually about the same cost of a full-time employee who might have only core competencies in one or two of these areas.

Most importantly, do not stop marketing and advertising your company during this time! Strong, consistent brand messages and graphic elements will wake up your brand and help prospects and customers keep your company top-of-mind. Continue to build your brand awareness so you will stay top-of-mind no matter what the economy holds!

Success is something you attract by the person you become. -Jim Rohn