Chapter 57 Tenacity, Perseverance and Determination.
Last night I came across a cockroach, smashed its tummy and dropped it in the rubbish. Hours later, it was gone! The insect has an iron will to live, and it can even survive starvation and suffocation in a bottle. What resilience and determination!
Tenacity is just as important too. If you were an octopus whose tentacles couldnt hold on to the prey, you would go hungry. We should be like postage stamps, stick to something until it gets there! Tenacity means not leaving things unfinished. As a manager, I am obsessed about tenaciousness. I insisted that workers pursue projects all the way to completion, and that salesmen persist until the orders are signed. Sales people should emulate the great entrepreneur Donald Trump, who cited: „More time passed, and I wrote another letter, suggesting a whole new way to make a deal. I was relentless, even in the face of a total lack of encouragement...sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure. Estee Lauder agreed when she said, „What then is the mystical ingredient? Its persistence.
The great success guru Og Mandino said, „The rewards in life only come at the end of a race...You never know how close you are if you dont round that turn. I always go one step further... one step at a time is not very difficult. I persevere until I succeed. Walter Elliot confirmed this, he said: „Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other. Anyone who persists long enough gets what he hungers for, and reaches his chosen destination. Former British Prime Minister, B. Disreali asserted, ‘The secret of success is constancy to purpose.’ On the other hand, lack of persistence is the cause of failures. We cannot pretend that life is easy, and even hard work and stamina may still run into myriad problems, comprising both small and gigantic obstacles, where it is easy to find an excuse to throw in the towel. Only the few who plod on despite opposition and rejection will reach their goals. Even our common efforts of training, acquiring knowledge and skills need persistence too; ask any champion.
A Chinese saying chimed: „You must taste the bitterest of bitter, to be the greatest of the great. Sadness makes us appreciate the contrasting feeling of joy; without suffering, there is no success. Nothing of value comes without efforts. Some people wondered how others could accomplish so much in their lives; the truth is, many overnight successes took years! Ray Kroc of McDonalds affirmed this: „But I was like so many people in the entertainment business who practised their routine for years...and then suddenly find themselves in the spotlight of stardom...but my 30 years of preparation was like a long, long night!...
Nothing in the world can replace perseverance. Even talent; there is nothing more common than wasted talent. Persistence often outpaces talent in reaching success. We must build our perseverance with: Desire, clear goals and purpose, strategies, self-reliance, resilience, knowledge and skills, inspiration and support from others, and will-power. Let us cultivate excellent and powerful habits too, as persistence is the direct result of habit!
Everywhere, water is breaking rocks into pebbles, not merely through strength but perseverance! Its sad that many people quit when the going gets tough, often just a few steps from victory. It is always the last key in the bunch that opens the door! Those who fail always pick the path of least persistence. Those who succeed know they have to go through many setbacks and disappointments, and that no one gets to the top in one single leap; their willingness to keep trudging on rough and slippery terrain sets them apart. They challenge the impossible. A. C. Clarke said, „The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. My good news to you is, successful people so often enjoyed their work that it never felt like hard work. Being busy is not good enough, you must love what you are doing and be creative and resourceful, then the hardship will subside.
In 1994 Baba M. Pal, a 49 year-old Indian broke a world climbing record by scaling a snow-capped Himalayan peak on one leg and crutches. Think about that; then compare your determination with his. People who say something cannot be done are often embarrassed and surprised by someone doing it. It is always possible to do whatever you choose. The man who really wants to do something finds a way or makes one! Others just find an excuse. Some may succeed because theyre fated to, but I believe most succeeded because they were determined to. Persistence is based on our power of will. Betty Cuthbert, Australian Olympic gold medalist stated: „An integral part of being a star is the will to win. All the champions have it.
Longfellow, the poet said, „Genius is infinite painstaking. So be consistent, passionate yet patient, Gods delays are not Gods denial. He will reward you. Let your desire and will-power go together, they are unstoppable. With perseverance, often what seems impossible in the short term is possible in the long term. An example is the computer, frolic with its magic, and you may ask: „How was that possible? Acumulated improvements in the last 40 years has brought wonders. The hardship and destitute once suffered by celebrities and superstars like Lincoln, Mandela, Disney, Billy Joel, Helen Reddy, the Beatles, Gloria Estefan and others have proven that impossibilities and despair in the short term can turn into achievements that are beyond our wildest imagination!
Defeats are temporary, and failures are never permanent. Let adversity and pain prod us to go faster and further. The wheel of fortune turns. Henry Beecher commented, „When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you... never give up then, for thats just the place and time that the tide will turn. Just be persistent and hopeful, let your desire surpass your distaste, work on steadily, and your dreams will come true. I wanted to leave you with the words of the great Sir Winston Churchill: „Never give in, never, never, never, never. A better approach is: To passthrough lifes tough journey and reach success, you must have desire, then focus with a will of steel on your goal, and you only need to take one step at a time, but keep stepping and stepping!
“Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.” - Voltaire, prominent French writer.
“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” - C. H. Spurgeon.
“No road is too long to the man who advances deliberately without undue haste, and no honours are too distant for the man who prepares himself for them with patience.” - J. Bruyere, French moralist.