Striving to reach one’s goals—whether it’s to land your dream job in a big corporation, complete a Master’s Degree in two years’ time, launch your own business, or pursue a passion project—takes dedication, hard work, and patience. One can’t expect that simply creating a vision board with all of your objectives will do the trick. At times, you will encounter more difficulties than what you’ve prepared yourself for, and this is where perseverance is needed the most.

If you feel this is happening with you at the moment, then you’re in good company. Some of the most successful people in the world today got there through a healthy combination of blood, sweat, and tears, so if you’re in the throes of throwing in the white flag, look into the motivators below to inspire you to keep going.

Terry Fox

There’s no better person to start off this list than our very own Terry Fox who overcame adversity to become the hero that we respect and love today. Fox was born in Manitoba and raised in British Columbia, where he became actively involved in a variety of sports as a teenager. However, when Fox was 18 years old, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and his right leg had to be amputated right above the knee. Instead of surrendering to a life of inactivity, Fox rose above the misfortune and instead vowed to dedicate his life to raising funds for cancer research by running across Canada. Fox started his journey in St. John’s, Newfoundland in April 1980 but anyone barely noticed. However, Fox persevered and soon his run gained attention and raised a good amount of money. After 143 days of running, cancer caught up with Fox and the build-up accumulated in his lungs and he was forced to stop running. Fox eventually succumbed to the disease in June 1981. However, his legacy continues and the annual Terry Fox Run has raised over $750M for cancer research. He remains to be a big hero to many Canadians, and he has been pitched to grace the new $5 bill.

Steve Jobs

The man who changed the face of technology forever didn’t exactly have an easy road to success. For starters, his birth parents gave him up for adoption. Academically, he wasn’t turning up an ace and eventually dropped out of college after a mere six months. He tried to pursue a variety of projects until deciding to partner with Steve Wozniak to establish Apple Computer in 1976 with the main goal of providing user-friendly personal computers to everyone. Due to internal company conflict, Jobs was forced out of his own company in 1985, but he didn’t let this stop him from his goal of achieving more. In 1997, Jobs stepped in the role of CEO at Apple once again, thus kicking off the company’s domination of the technology industry through the release of revolutionary products such as the iPod, iPhone, and MacAir.

J.K. Rowling

Everyone knows the genius behind the phenomenal “Harry Potter” series, but not everyone knows that being successful wasn’t entirely a walk in the park for J.K. Rowling. Though she grew up surrounded by books and became a book author herself by the young age of 6, she didn’t gain recognition for her works until later on. In fact, she faced a slew of challenges on the road to success, trials that may have prompted an ordinary person to give up. She was obviously an extraordinary person and thus persevered as best as she could. To start with, she faced tribulations in her personal life, suffering abuse at the hands of her husband, whom she later divorced. She also lost her mom to multiple sclerosis and had no choice but to rely  on welfare. She didn’t stop writing and came up with a submission (which will become the Harry Potter that we all know today) to a major publishing house, which in turn rejected it. Bloomsbury Children’s Books was the publishing company who gave her the big YES and the rest is history. Now, the Harry Potter empire is worth $15B.

Bethany Hamilton

Hamilton is living proof that you can get past a harrowing experience and achieve your goals to make a positive impact to people’s lives. As a young girl, she always wanted to be an athlete and make her mark in surfing. However, at 13 years old, Hamilton encountered a 14-foot tiger shark which resulted in her losing her left arm. While others would have given up following this horrible turn of events, Hamilton just became more motivated and went back to surfing only after a month after the attack. In two years’ time, she won her first national surfing title. Hamilton isn’t one to keep what she learned from experience to herself. She’s been happy to share her wisdom through the release of books and by being a motivational speaker.

Oprah Winfrey

A list of the greatest motivators wouldn’t be complete without Oprah Winfrey in it. After all, those who know her story will associate this billionaire media mogul and philanthropist with the word “inspiring.” Winfrey was almost set to fail in life but her determination and dedication were too powerful to resist. Born in poverty, Winfrey experienced sexual abuse at the hands of male relatives as a young girl, an experience that would be traumatic for anyone. She didn’t let this get in the way of her ambition and desire to be an inspiration to others. Winfrey had a passion for broadcasting and won a gig to host a TV chat show in her local city of Baltimore. After eight years, Winfrey landed a job to host her own radio show in Chicago. These two jobs definitely paved the way for her long-running “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which was launched in 1986.

SOURCES

https://www.biography.com/media-figure/oprah-winfrey

https://bethanyhamilton.com/biography/

https://www.jkrowling.com/about/

https://www.biography.com/business-figure/steve-jobs

https://terryfox.org/terrys-story/