An inspiration for writing this piece, is from a line which I heard on the hit series, “The Brady Bunch,” delivered by Carol Brady, portrayed by Florence Henderson. “Peter you cannot replant cut flowers!” Resilience is one of the most sought after qualities on the planet; for one to be able to bend yet not break. In fact, if the seven deadly sins had a counterpart for survival, resilience would most definitely be among them. However, less often than not, what is taken in to consideration, when in need of resilience, among its many virtues, is that in order for one to be resilient, one must first fail!
In essence, everyone wants resilience, but no one wants to fail. It is somewhat synonymous to the old Baptist Proverb….”Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”
All of these things give rise to tough skin. One cannot know the depth of the hide, absent piercing it; as leather is the softest, when it has endured the most pummeling. Resilience is the first cousin of relentlessness. These things are so true, because the only thing scarier than Failure is Success! Why? With failure there is no place to go but up; with success it’s quite the opposite. With failure, the worst case scenario has already come to pass, requiring only one’s resilience…assuming that they possess it. Even those seemingly absent such worries are concerned with it. Jada Pinkett-Smith, (wife of millionaire, Will Smith), once remarked, how the [his] fear of “Losing everything [money] continues to keep Will up at night, even to this day!”
This gives way for one to thrive. Thriving is taking Larry King Live with CNN to Larry King Now. Thriving is when one does not have to fail to obtain more trajectory, as Arianna Huffington’s, going willingly, from The Huffington Post to her latest brainchild, “Thrive Global.” People who do not allow for great movements, such as Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage, to lose their momentum and die, making way for future movements….Thrive!
Whether one is agnostic, or practices true belief in Gnosticism, they realize that the one true formula for success is relentlessness. Becoming so relentless that the only true barrier between you and your goal is time. Time that will come bearing the fruition of your manifestation: Because “The Only Way to Fail….is to Quit!”
Hence, “thrive!” Thrive to maintain Open Arms. Thrive [for] global reception. Take counsel; love not sleep; stay spiritually awake! Remember, Solomon took counsel in advisors; even if you don’t believe Solomon was a man, but merely: The Soul of Man…take counsel in those around you; remember the resilience of the butterfly, which can travel across the Atlantic without resting its feet—a thing which not even the eagle can do.
Practice the resilience of those who had no blueprint; no model, other than the will to succeed, like that of Milton Hershey, who understands that one must fail more times than one will ever succeed.