One Man s Travels Through Adversity

One Man's Travels Through Adversity

Tony Wainright is a successful advertising director, director of six public companies, writer of books, movies, and plays, and a consultant to Fortune 500 companies across the United States.

One of his secrets to success is that he doesn't see rejection as failure or adversity. Once there was a company he wanted for an advertising account. The first time he went to see them, he was told the timing was wrong. Wainright pursued this company for six years. He thought about giving up, but he kept going. Then one day, in the sixth year, the company told him, "We're starting a new division. How would you like the account?" He walked out of their offices that day with $30 million worth of their business.

Wainright's confidence and his belief in persistence told him to keep trying. "The analogy I would use is, if you stand by a door, the odds are at some juncture the door will open. If you walk away saying, 'Gee the door is closed and I can't get in,' you'll never get inside. I'm willing to stand by the door."

Wainright wasn't always so confident or successful. When he was 29 years old, three hardships struck him at once. First, he became ill and required major surgery. Then he lost his job. And, most seriously, his second daughter was born with spina bifida and died within a year.

"I got down on my knees and I remember thinking, 'There are two ways to go. I'm either going to pull myself together or I'm not.' I did. The good news is that from adversity two things happened. First, I worked harder than ever before and became successful. Second I never forgot what happened to me. From that moment on, I dedicated part of my life to helping other people—doing things I never would have thought of had I not gone through adversity myself.

"For me, there are three things that helped me get through adversity. One is prayer. Another is the absolute belief that tomorrow will be better than today. And third, though it may sound like a clich , is that I don't take things personally. Instead, I figure out a way to overcome it. That's the best advice I can give. Don't dwell on things. And don't feel sorry for yourself when something happens. It happens to everyone, and it happens more than once. The ultimate winners are the ones that never give up."

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much... in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt,
U.S. president