No Such Thing as Down and Out

Just when you think the economic news couldn’t get much worse, it gets scarier. Confidence in the U.S. economy is lower than it’s been in over half a century and that anxiety is stretching to other parts of the world.

We’re experiencing sharp decreases in home prices, plummeting markets, and now major bank failures. We’ve seen all before. We made it through then, and we’ll make it through this time around as well. As dark as these times seem, the light will return.

Although we can’t always control what’s happening around us, Tony teaches that we can control the decisions we make about what to do within these kinds of circumstances. We always have the power of choice—choosing how we feel, what to focus on, and then what to do with what we’ve got.

Some people have the tendency to reserve the ability to overcome what seems like insurmountable odds to those who appear to have advantages that others don’t have. “She’s just more naturally gifted. He has more money. They have time and resources I don’t have. What am I going to do when I’ve got a family to feed?”

While everyone has some kind of advantage that others don’t, this fact also creates the level ground from which we can all thrive and succeed with the gifts we do have. However, there are lots of talented people in the world, but not all of them successfully overcome the odds that may be stacked against them. So what makes the difference?

The stories below represent examples of people who had been down and counted out, but came back and rose to the top of their game. One of them called on Tony for help.

Keep in mind that regardless of talent level, these are people just like us: people who felt the same kinds of fear, frustration, and hopelessness we feel when our backs are against the wall. But we all also have the same potential to break out just as they did—with determination, perseverance, and the will to not be kept down.

As you read the following examples, think about a time when you were in a dire situation, but somehow figured a way out. Then think about the difference between merely surviving tough times, and really breaking through to a success that you’ve always wanted to achieve but didn’t push forward through, whether it was because of self-imposed limitations or the limitations of the environment.

They overcame their limitations, and you can too.

Karl Eller—Back from the Brink

Karl Eller was a successful advertising executive in Arizona, building the Combined Communications Corporation into one of the largest and most profitable media companies in the U.S. from the late 1960s through the next decade. It seemed like everything Eller touched turned to gold, merging CCC with Gannet Communications Corporation—the owners of USA Today—in 1979, then serving as president of Columbia Pictures Communications in 1980. Three years later, Columbia Pictures merged into the Coca Cola Company. By this point, Eller’s net worth was about $500 million.

For the next seven years, he served as CEO of the Circle K Corporation. During that time, he built Circle K into the second largest convenience store operation and the largest publicly owned convenience store chain in the U.S., with 4,641 stores in 32 states and an additional 1,386 licensed or joint venture stores in 13 foreign countries. Under his leadership, the company grew from annual sales of $747 million to $3.4 billion.

But his run of success came to an abrupt end when the company filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of the 1990s, due in part to an unforeseeable bad turn in business. Eller was forced to leave the company with $100 million dollars in personal debt. By any standard, this situation would seem impossible to overcome and would be labeled by many as failure. At this point, Eller was in his early 60s, when most people are considering retirement and the end of their working lives.

But instead of declaring bankruptcy, Eller dug himself out of debt by going back into a field he knew well because he had originally started out in it: outdoor advertising.
At age 65, Eller made a comeback and created the outdoor advertising giant Eller Media.
He purchased the Phoenix branch of Gannett Outdoor and went on to build a nationwide company in 25 large markets.

In 1997, Eller Media merged with Clear Channel Communications for a then-record $1.15 billion. He not only freed himself from hundreds of millions in debt, but emerged wealthier than he had ever been.

Everyone—everyone—is going to make bad choices every so often, but a venture that seems like a failure is not the marker by which we should measure ourselves. Eller is elegant proof that previous success can be built upon, even after a crushing blow. For Eller, it was never about “starting over” in his 60s; it was about getting back to what he already knew, and making intelligent choices. The ability to shift his focus to possibility instead of defeat allowed Eller to overcome great odds and make a triumphant return as an entrepreneur.

Serena Williams—Back on Top with a New Focus

No other number-one-ranked female tennis player experienced the kind of drought that Serena Williams overcame. From the beginning of 2002 through the end of 2003, Williams had won five of the six majors she entered, and by the end of 2003, she was ranked number one in the world.

But by 2006, she had fallen out of the top 125 players, and had only won two major singles championships in the past five years. Tennis legend Chris Evert even questioned Serena’s 100 percent commitment to tennis. She went from nearly invincible to almost invisible.

With her edge virtually extinguished during this drought, Serena reached out to peak performance master Tony Robbins, not for tennis coaching, but to reconnect with the capabilities she already had inside. She knew she was the best of this generation, but didn’t always show up that way. Tony helped her regain her psychological and emotional focus, which in turn sharpened the tennis skills she had already mastered. She then began her ascent back to the top, winning the 2007 Australian Open.

But just last month, fourth-seeded Serena beat her sister Venus (who had topped Serena earlier this year in the finals at Wimbledon) in the quarterfinals of this year’s U.S Open, and plowed her way through the tournament without losing a set, capturing the championship and regaining her spot as the number one player in the world.

Serena’s key? Managing her emotions.

“I definitely managed my emotions a lot better,” said Serena in a recent interview. “That was one thing I really wanted to focus on going into this match, was staying positive. I felt like I got really negative at Wimbledon, and lost any chance I might have had.

“So I thought … when [U.S. Open finals opponent Jelena Jankovic] was up, I just got relaxed. When I was up, I was still relaxed.”

Your psychological and emotional state will direct you toward the top, to the middle of the pack, or worse. Dedicate the necessary time each day to take care of arguably the single most important determinant of your performance—your emotional state. Where do you live emotionally?

Dara Torres—Timeless Grit and Determination

When it comes to any goal, it’s all about how bad you want it. And it doesn’t matter how old or young you are. Age is just a number, but peak performance is a timeless matter of will.

Torres made her Olympic debut in 1984 as a 17-year-old. After winning four medals in three Olympic Games, she retired from competitive swimming in 1992 because she thought, at age 25, she was “too old.” But in 1999 she resumed training, re-entered Olympic competition, and left the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney with three bronze and two gold medals.

Now—16 years after retiring, and two years after giving birth to her daughter—41-year-old Torres is the first U.S. swimmer to compete at five Olympic Games, and the oldest woman ever to make the U.S. Olympic swim team. She finished the 2008 Games with three silver medals.

She’s had plenty of setbacks along the way—including a battle with bulimia, two divorces, and five knee surgeries—not to mention the challenges that come with being a new parent. But in qualifying for her fifth Olympic Games, her time in the 100-meter freestyle that got her a ticket to Beijing was 2.47 seconds faster than her Olympic effort in 1988, at age 21.

“I had literally just breast fed my daughter, got on the blocks and got ready to swim,” she told Time magazine. “I didn’t know what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised.

“I couldn’t count the number of people who came up to me at that meet and said it would be great to see someone our age at the Olympics,” Torres said. “It got the wheels spinning.”

Though Torres would be the first to admit that “there are times when I feel 40 and I feel like there’s a piano on my back,” there are other times when she feels 20 and “just flying through the water.”

Dara was so clear and focused on her goals, it activated her inner desire to overcome what seems unfathomable—a 40-something-year-old out-swimming women half her age. Torres is a testament that, with dedication and willpower, it’s never too late to breakthrough.