Conation - We're born with it

The dictionary definition of conation is the part of mental life having to do with striving, including desire and volition. I believe conation is the single most important indicator of success and the definition that I would like to use is found in the book Self Made in America, by John McCormack.

"Simply put, conation is the will to succeed, the quest for success, the attitude that to stop me you'll have to kill me, that elusive fire in the belly that manifests itself in drive, enthusiasm, excitement, and single-mindedness in pursuit of a goal - any goal. All consistently successful people have it. Many well-educated, intelligent, endearing, and presentable people don't have it."

Will Smith said in an interview "I consider myself to have average talent. What I have that others do not, is a sick obsessive animal drive." Will Smith has conation and that is the most important part of his success.

To prove that we are all born with conation all we have to do is watch a child. I remember when my youngest son was learning to walk just a few months ago. He would get up and fall down then get up and fall down again without loosing any desire to do it all over again. When my 3 year old son wants something he will ask for it until he gets it. If he wants a cookie he'll ask again and again and again and every time I say no he thinks of new tactics, like asking his mother, or explaining to me why he deserves it. But he never get discouraged, he doesn't quit until he gets it. I wonder when we loose this enthusiastic drive that when someone says no to us we don't even hear the no all we hear is that we need to find a different way to achieve this goal.

I think you might recognize some of these next examples of conation. The reason you know who these popular people are is only because they had conation, if they would have quit on there dreams I'm sure you wouldn't know who they are.

Henry Ford who failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.

Dr. Seuss's first children's book, And to Think that I saw It on Mulberry Street, was rejected by 27 publishers, and the 28 publisher sold 6 million copies.

Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor for lack of imagination. He went bankrupt several times before he built Disney, and was turned down by 302 banks before he found one that believed in his idea.

In 1962, four young women tried starting their professional singing carrier. They started by performing in churches and small concerts. Then they recorded their first record and it was a flop. They continued recording eight more records and all nine were failures. They got a brake to be on the Dick Clark show and still didn't get a contract from it. Later that summer, they recorded "Where Did Our Love Go?" and it made it to the top of the charts. Diana Ross and the Supremes never gave up and had a great carrier because of their conation.

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