The Top 10 Distinctions Between Winners and Whiners

Chapter 3. Winners find a way. Whiners find an excuse.

I once received an e-mail that posed this question: Which is more important, the power of belief or the power of persistence?

My immediate response was that belief was more important than persistence. In fact, it is belief that creates persistence. It can be challenging to persevere, especially when we're faced with failure, rejection, or loss, but belief gives us the confidence we need to persist.

Henry Ford once said, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." It's a deeper truth than most people realize. Whiners continue to find excuses for two reasons. First, because things get tough, and second, because they don't believe they can prevail.

It takes a winner to "keep on keeping on" when something goes wrong. A winner sees a setback as a message to learn something new. He resolves to find a way because he believes there is a way. Whiners find an excuse because they don't believe they can succeed.

Consider a fly trapped in a room. The fly desperately bangs against the window trying to get free. His struggle is vigorous but futile, and he eventually dies. Why? It seems that the fly has only one strategy: Try harder. Had the fly simply looked around, he would have noticed that just across the room was an open door—after a few seconds of flying, he could have been free.

Many whiners behave like the fly. They try harder and harder with the wrong strategy. They find either an excuse to keep doing what they're doing ...