New Year's Resolutions

By Keith “K.C.” KoKoruz, “The Science of Marketing”

It is New Year’s Resolution Time. Starting 2016 out with a plan and a goal

So let’s just say what half of you are thinking, “New Year’s resolutions are stupid and no one ever follows through anyway.” The other half of you are saying, “It’s a New Year and this year will be better than the last one and it’s going to start with my New Year’s resolutions.”

Both viewpoints are right and both viewpoints are wrong. It just depends on how you look at life. This goes back to the glass half full or glass half empty way of thinking.

Only 50% of Americans even take the time to set New Year’s resolutions. Now understand something for a minute, making these resolutions costs you nothing. It starts simply by determining the changes that you want to make in your life and then committing to them.

Now the sad part, 88% of those that choose to make a resolution will fail. The numbers show that this comes out to 156 million failed resolutions per year in the United States alone.

As overwhelming as those numbers are, keep in mind the most important thing, 12% of those resolutions will be achieved and those people will succeed. People will stop smoking. People will get into better shape. People will lose the weight that they want to. People will grow their professional lives to the degree that they aim for. I am living proof.

Six years ago this past November 13, 2015. I lost everything I owned professionally except for my CD collection that I used for DJing. Since then, I have worked constantly to not only build my new business but other opportunities have also presented themselves and I have been able to take advantage of those as well. My business goal for 2016 is to do between 3 million and 3.5 million dollars in gross sales for my businesses.

Only 5% of all businesses ever gross 1 million dollars in business.

I am not a genius. I don’t have money supporting me. I started over with nothing. I was, and still am simply willing to work harder than anyone else to hit my goals. I’m not in competition with other companies. I am in competition with myself to hit those goals.

This article is not about me though. This article is about you. You have the ability to set goals. Determine a course of action. Commit to what needs to be done to reach those goals and make it happen. If you fail, then you fail. Some of the most successful people in life have failed.

You don’t fully understand how to balance yourself on a bicycle until you have fallen enough times that you get tired of falling but the idea of not riding the bike is not an option either.

Here are some of the most famous failures in history.

Thomas Edison’s teachers told him he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Edison went on to hold more than 1,000 patents

Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore, where she said she faced sexism and harassment. Forbes recently estimated that she is worth $2.9 billion.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Several more of his businesses failed before the premiere of his movie “Snow White.”

Steven Spielberg was rejected by the University Of Southern California School Of Cinematic Arts multiple times. He went on to create the first summer blockbuster with “Jaws” in 1975, and has won three Academy Awards.

Colonel Harland David Sanders was fired from dozens of jobs before founding a successful restaurant. He traveled across the U.S. looking for someone to sell his fried chicken, and after finally getting a business deal in Utah, Kentucky Fried Chicken was born. KFC is now one of the most recognizable franchises in the world, with over 18,000 locations.

Vera Wang failed to make the U.S. Olympic figure-skating team. Then she became an editor at Vogue and was passed over for the editor-in-chief position. She began designing wedding gowns at age 40 and today is one of the premier designers in the fashion industry, with a business worth over $1 billion.

As a child, Albert Einstein had some difficulty communicating and learning in a traditional manner. Of course, Einstein’s communication and behavioral problems were not indicative of a lack of intelligence. He won the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the photoelectric effect, and his special theory of relativity theory corrected the deficiencies of Newtonian physics.

In one of Fred Astaire’s first screen tests, an executive wrote: “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little.” Astaire went on to become a Hollywood and Broadway legend yet no one can remember the name of the executive.

J.K. Rowling was a single mom living off welfare when she began writing the first “Harry Potter” novel. Rowling is now internationally renowned for her seven-book Harry Potter series and, in U.S. currency, became the first billionaire author in 2004.

I love all of the Rocky movies and one of the best quotes about life is this one. “It ain’t about how hard you can hit… It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep movin’ forward.”

I wish you all a very happy New Year and the best that the New Year has to offer you.