“No. Don’t give up hope just yet. It’s the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.”― Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four
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Who has never heard of American singer Scotty McCreery? He has been a household name for nearly half his life, ever since making history in 2011 as both the first country artist and the youngest male artist of any genre to debut his first studio album, the Platinum-certified Clear as Day, at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
However, that is a premature advancement in the narrative. In 2011, at the age of 17, he won the hearts of many and triumphed on “American Idol”—a moment that appeared to be the pinnacle of his achievements. Yet, as he would soon discover, the genuine ascent was only just commencing.
He began releasing music under Mercury Nashville and initially garnered some attention. However, by 2015, challenges arose. His single “Southern Belle” failed to gain attention, leading the label to part ways with him. For many, this would mark the conclusion of the story.
But for Scotty, this was not the case. Fast forward to May 2017: he recorded “Five More Minutes”—a profoundly personal track inspired by his late grandfather. He had such faith in the song that he chose to self-release it, without the support of a record label. It was purely driven by passion and determination.
And it was successful. That particular song marked his inaugural No. 1, initiating a series of five consecutive chart-topping hits. All of a sudden, the artist who had been written off emerged as the leading figure on the country charts.
In 2021, Scotty received the Pandora Billionaire accolade, acknowledging his music’s achievement of over one billion streams on Pandora.
And there’s more: his track “Five More Minutes” served as the inspiration for two well-received holiday films, with him taking on the role of executive producer. The first film premiered on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Network: “Five More Minutes” in 2021, followed by “Five More Minutes: Moments Like These” in 2022. This all stemmed from a song that nearly never came to fruition.
The story above serves as a gentle reminder: your significant moment may not occur when the spotlight shines upon you. It could very well be defined by your actions once they diminish.
“If you are going through hell, keep going,” advised British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill. Roy T. Bennet, author of The Light in the Heart, had the same point of view when he wrote: “Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.”
Thomas Alva Edison was perhaps the greatest inventor in history with over 1,000 patents issued to his name. He changed the lives of millions of people through such inventions as the electric light and phonograph. His statement, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,” is one of the most often-quoted lines.
Perhaps it may come to you as a surprise that this American inventor had only three months of formal schooling. History records showed that he knew more failures than successes.
For more than a year, Edison kept on searching for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current. As he pondered whether he would be able to discover the elusive thing, he got a note from people backing his experiment. He was told that they won’t be giving additional funds for what he was then doing.
News like that may bring a person to quit – but not Edison. In fact, it did not deter him from continuing his work. He refused to admit defeat and worked without sleep for two more days and nights. Eventually, he managed to insert one of the crude carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb. “When we turned on the current,” he recalled, “the sight we had so long desired finally met our eyes!”
Before that, however, Edison had to endure a string of failures. “What a waste! We have tried no less than 700 experiments and nothing has worked. We are not a bit better off than when we started,” a couple of men who were working alongside him said. He just shrugged this comment, telling them, “Oh yes, we are! We now know 700 things that won’t work. We’re closer than we’ve ever been before.”
An unknown poet says it well: “When things go wrong as they sometimes will, when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, when the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile, but you have to sigh.”
“Rest if you must, but don’t you quit,” the poet continues. “Life is queer with its twists and turns, as every one of us sometimes learns, and many a failure turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.”
The key word here is persistence, defined as firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. Well, that was what Edison, Hershey, and Lincoln possessed.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence,” declared American president Calvin Coolidge. “Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
“Many people fail in life because they believe in the adage: If you don’t succeed, try something else,” American author Don B. Owens, Jr. observed. “But success eludes those who follow such advice. Virtually everyone has had dreams at one time or another, especially in youth. The dreams that have come true did so because people stuck to their ambitions. They refused to be discouraged. They never let disappointment get the upper hand. Challenges only spurred them on to greater effort.” –
