Disappointment Can Be Just a Step on the Way to Success

“I doubt you have the intellectual capacity to be a lawyer,” the partner I was working for told me after I’d been at the firm for six months. Since I was working night and day to succeed, his words were disappointing, to say the least.   (Luckily, I didn’t believe him.) But that wasn’t the biggest disappointment I had at that law firm.

 

After working myself to death during my undergrad years to get into a top law school, I made it.  Then I worked even harder to be at the top of my class in law school so I could get the right job at a top law firm.  When I achieved that goal as well, I felt sure I had made it. How disappointing to discover that it wasn’t at all what I expected!

 

I practiced law for just 22 months. Yes, it was a huge disappointment, and it was a tough transition when I decided to leave the legal profession. But I now realize that those months were invaluable because of what they taught me. I took those lessons to my next career as a wealth manager where they served me well and contributed to my success.

 

I learned that I can overcome adversity, I can work really hard, and I can read legal documents, which I’m often required to do. Practicing law also gave me experience in negotiation. Great negotiators focus on what is most important and often concede the little points that don’t really matter.  This skill can be carried over to your personal life to help you focus on what is most important to you.

 

We will all experience disappointment in our lives – whether in our career or our relationships. It only becomes a real problem when we let the fear of disappointment keep us from pursuing something that we want because we may not get it.

 

Maybe you hate your job, but you don’t start a new business because you might fail and be disappointed. You’d like to take a year off and write a book, but then you believe it probably won’t get it published and you’ll wind up disappointed. Sometimes we even convince ourselves that we don’t really want something because we are so afraid of not getting it.

 

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling book series of all time, lost her mother, got divorced and was living in poverty when she was writing Harry Potter. But “I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life,” she said.

 

If you’re currently suffering from a major disappointment or are not pursuing something you really want, I urge you to think about a time in the past when you tried your hardest and it didn’t work out. How painful was it and how long did it last? What did you get out of it? If you had it to do over again, would you do it differently?

 

Many times we decide we would not do it differently. Even when we failed and didn’t get what we wanted, we learned things that have propelled us to the next thing. Don’t let fear of disappointment keep you from going for what you really want. Even if you do experience disappointment, it may just be another step for you on the way to achieving your dreams.

 

 David Geller is the author of Wealth & Happiness Using Your Wealth to Create a Better Life.  He is the CEO of Atlanta-based GV Financial Advisors and is available for professional speaking engagements.