There has long been a saying that it takes 15 – 20 years to become an overnight success. This fact is as clear as day and quite easy to put into perspective. Still, many people would understand what the above means and not be able to replicate the hopeful success; they may try and try for as hard as they can yet fall short regardless of the number of years invested. They fail because they never realize “the secret” … the secret to obtaining overnight success.
Marvel has the Secret to Overnight Success
The adage that nothing worth having comes easily could not be any truer; but to add to the latter, consider that anything obtained easily may not actually be success. In 2019 the movie Avengers Endgame was released and was critically acclaimed by the masses. It was so well received that it turned out to be the highest grossest movie of all time worldwide. Avengers Endgame earned $2.79 billion in revenue.
Nevertheless it took a total of 21 movies prior to the release of Avengers Endgame to support the final film in eventually becoming the number one movie in history. The aforementioned 21 movies were all consistently released over the span of a decade.
More so, it was interesting seeing a single movie possibly become the most notable point of prime actors’ careers. And this is considering that many of them had been acting for countless years before Avengers. For some people, it would only be after watching Avengers that they then recognize Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo in much earlier movie gems like Zodiac. I was one of the those people. And being one of those people also helped me grasp the true secret to obtaining overnight success.
The Rich and the Wealthy
One of the biggest transitional periods relative to my improved state of mind was upon learning that being rich and wealthy is different. At one point I had no clue that you could have been rich and not wealthy; nor did I think you could have been wealthy but not rich. Once I understood that being wealthy is better than being rich I stopped worrying about obtaining overnight success; instead I started being more receptive to the day that my wealth would lead me to success.
When you’re rich you have money; when you’re wealthy you know how to turn money-making abilities into profit regardless of what you have. You also understand that investments take time and you can’t rush the process of success or make anything truly successful happen before its time.
No shortcuts to Success
Using the example above, Robert Downey Jr. also starred in dozens of movies before Avengers. While he ultimately found the most success with Endgame, his journey towards ultimately achieving this took 50 years of work. In addition to the level of work he put in there’s also a major part that many people often don’t care to see.
Downey spent several years being plagued by substance abuse, arrests, rehab, and relapses. Despite all the extraordinary level of success he obtained from an extremely early age he still succumbed to his weaknesses. It took years of struggle before Downey could even think of feeling like a true success again.
The Secret to Overnight Success
Many people are quite aware that to find success you need to work hard and be patient. But what they focus much less on is the “working smart” part. It takes time to build credibility and time for people to trust and relate to you. Working smart involves getting people to appreciate your value despite the endless number of people who may be smarter, more experienced or are in a better position than you.
Hard work is not enough. Consistency is just a start. And talent will only get you so far. So then what is the actual secret to obtaining overnight success? The answer is resilience. Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and setbacks. Through resilience, you develop your toughness, and toughness allows you to keep pushing forward during the times that matter most.
The more resilient you are the more successful you will eventually be. You will stop expecting things to more likely go your way and start accepting that even the best of the best may never find perpetual success if they quit. And you will also not just accept the obvious that success doesn’t come overnight; you will focus only on learning and doing whatever it takes, for however long it takes until the day you no longer relate to the term “overnight success”. Because only the best of the best would have long put in enough effort to completely understand why overnight success is not a thing. Only your hunger to be successful is.
