Denise Austin: Fitness Guru Who Never Gave Up

Denise Austin - Tone Your Tummy Type

Denise Austinreally has guts. She must have. After being turned down time and time again, she had the confidence in her idea as well as the inner motivation needed to pursue her dreams. She’s a prime example of someone who’s been told "no" but just won’t take that as an answer.

The thing that motivated Denise was that she knew she had something good. She had been successful on a small scale - working for local programming – but always knew her system could work for a larger audience. She saw that nobody out there was doing what she envisioned and set out to change that.

In order to bring her idea to a national audience, Denise decided to call the Executive Producer of "The Today Show." She was repeatedly told that he would contact her, but he never did. She ended up calling a total of Thirty Five times--THIRTY FIVE TIMES--before she finally got the chance to speak with him and explain her idea. That sort of persistence is rarely found in anybody.

That very persistence got her the job on "The Today Show" and she became the resident fitness consultant there for years. What would have happened if she didn’t keep trying? She probably wouldn’t have had the chance to host her own show, author several best-selling books or even sell over 20 million workout DVDs throughout her career.

For Denise Austin, it was her initial persistence and her unwillingness to give up that opened the floodgates for her success. I truly believe that you can learn something from every successful person you meet. Denise’s story should make everyone realize that if at first you don’t succeed--try, try, try again. And if that doesn’t work…try again. As long as you believe in your idea, you owe it to yourself--and your idea--to never take "no" for an answer.

Questions? Comments? donny@cnbc.com