There Is No Such Thing As An Overnight Success

Posted on May 18, 2010 | 1 comment

I really do believe that there is no such thing as an overnight success. Such talk is nothing more than a worn out cliché in my mind. Yet there’s a recent story that pushes my belief to its limit.

This topic came to the forefront of my mind as I watched the public growth and notoriety of a sixth grade young man in Edmond, Oklahoma. Last week, my wife brought to my attention 12 year old Greyson Chance. His rapid rise to YouTube stardom was triggered by a seemingly innocuous sixth grade talent show. Only weeks after his awesome cover performance of Lady GaGa’s “Paparazzi” hit song, Greyson has accumulated millions of YouTube hits (over 17 million views as of this writing), a raving fan base, and an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

If you haven’t seen his performance, check out his rendition of Paparazzi.

So we revisit this question again. Is there such thing as an overnight success? On one hand, Greyson has never taken vocal lessons (according to him). On the other hand, he has taken three years of piano lessons. What is the definition of an overnight success? What is success? Does overnight mean that you only had a few years of piano lessons before being recognized in industry? Is overnight success some sort of ratio between investments to payback?

You can see how quickly we move into the “grey area” in trying to answer this question. The answer is obviously not black and white. So we’re left to answer this question in our own minds based upon our life experiences and beliefs. Here’s my take on it.

Every system has inputs and outputs. Something is never created from nothing. This is so in life and in business. For some reason, many folks in business and entrepreneurship become distraught when overnight success does not occur. Where visualizing and expecting overnight success is fine, finding yourself discouraged because hard work comes before success is not.

I believe strongly that there is no such thing as an overnight success but I challenge you to prove me wrong. If you should climb in bed tonight and wake up tomorrow as an overnight success, please be sure to share your story with me.