TIP: There are no failures... only deferred success

Years ago, Stallone was broke and living in New York. He had no money for food or electricity. He had to pawn his wife's jewelery just for food money. Eventually, he even had to sell his dog Butkus for $25 because he could not afford to feed it and needed the money for his family.

Stallone looked for work as an actor, asking agents again and again, more than 1,000 times total. After watching a boxing match, he got the inspiration for the film "Rocky", and spent 24 hours straight writing the first draft. Then he began trying to sell the film with himself in the lead role. Everyone rejected it.

Eventually, he got an offer for $125,000 for his script. But they did not want him to star in it. (They envisioned Ryan O'Neil for the role.) However, Stallone wanted to be an actor, so he walked away from the offer.

The offer price rose to $250,000, and eventually to $325,000, as long as Stallone would not star in the picture. But he refused.

"Are you insane?", they asked him.

"No, I'm Rocky", he responded.

Stallone eventually took $35,000 plus a percentage of the profits of the film. (Obviously, things turned out well.)

What kicked off Stallone's successful career as an actor was his passion and persistence to become one. Looking for a job could be depressing and demoralizing, but Stallone didn't collapse and give up, even when confronted with financial troubles, rejections, or other major obstacles. The real challenge during a job search is staying positive when there seems to be little reason for it. Worse, the negative attitude always manages to show in the interview, no matter how hard you try to hide it.

Landing a job takes patience. Someone once said every success's the transformation of a previous failure, therefore, if you fail, it is because you quit too soon. Although this may not be true in every instance, there's a lot to be said for not quitting too soon. Patience counts and in the long run, patience generally wins out. Take every No you receive as a deferred yes.

Landing a job takes persistence, and persistence requires energy. Establish a routine that includes exercise, rest, and plenty of water. Let the job hunting drive you to drink, just as long as it's spring water ;-)

Be your own cheerleader. It's essential to find ways to inject some confidence and optimism into your search. Celebrate every progress, however small it may be. Create a support group of close friends to get the negatives out of your head. 

Be driven and persistent during your job search - all winners share this trait, and you can be one of them.

Category: C++ Quant > From the Trenches