One look at the headlines tells you it's pretty terrible out there, right? Unemployment among millennials is at twice the national average. Thirty-six percent of millennials still live with their parents. Jenny McCarthy is giving kids measles again. Someone just decided we should be called millennials and no one even asked us. Our planes are disappearing out of the sky. And those are just the general problems.

Look in the mirror, and your problems seem to get worse. You're fat, you flunked a test or just got dumped, your kid is turning into a little asshole, and your dream job has become a nightmare.

Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images

Like working in porn ... as the cleanup guy.

These are very real obstacles. Especially when they loom over you right now, in the immediate present. But this is deceptive, because for thousands of years people have faced far worse. At least you're not facing unemployment and the Civil War. Or divorce and polio. There are still people alive in this country who remember what it was like to regularly risk deadly infections from simple cuts on your finger or contaminated drinking water.

The point is this: Some of history's most impressive success stories came during times of unbelievable hardship and difficulty. Many of our greatest triumphs came from people who had the shit kicked out of them, who faced seemingly unending adversity and yet, paradoxically, used their trials as opportunities. For these incredible men, the obstacle was the way.