Bill Gates and Paul Allen's first business venture (Traf-O-Data, which read traffic tapes and processed the data) was a miserable failure. Sir Richard Branson overcame severe dyslexia to become the 4th richest man in the UK. Stephen King's first novel was rejected 30 times. We have heard these stories time and time again while looking for inspiration on our journey to achieving our dreams of becoming a great success. The rugged individualist persevering through all so that their dreams could become reality. Pushing themselves harder and harder until finally they made their way. They did it on their own, and so can we!

What if I told these stories in a very different way? Bill Gates was born to a father who was a prominent attorney and a mother who was closely tied to the CEO of IBM. Richard Branson's father was a Barrister, and his grandfather a Judge. His parents even bought him a large aviary at 15 years of age when he decided he wanted to start raising budgies as a business. Stephen King gave up. He threw his manuscript into the trash and quit. His wife, Tabitha dug the manuscript out of the garbage and begged him to finish it.

What these people have in common isn't a dogged determination to make it in the face of any challenge, but the support structure around them to help them around, over, or through the obstacles in their paths. Sometimes, even pushing them when they themselves thought they couldn't do it.

Many of us fail time and time again because we think that we are good enough to face any challenge, beat any foe, obliterate any obstacle. The men mentioned above weren't successful men until after they had made it...with just a little help from those who wanted desperately to see them succeed.

I live in hope that I can be more and more like Tabitha King. We all should.