Power Factor #1: Persistence Continued

Of course, persistence comes in many forms, as do "enemies." In business, your opponent may be a company competing for your market share; it may also be something less obvious, such as flaws in management or strategy, or even your team’s perception of how long it will take to get something done. In a relationship, the enemy could be your fears, anger, or neglect. In your finances, you could be battling debt or cash-flow problems. Churchill tells us not to fold under these pressures. Not to fold under any pressures.

Think that’s too much to ask? Perhaps we can take a lesson from a venerable senior citizen, the late Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken. At the age of sixty-five, when he wanted to start KFC, he began by driving from town to town offering to sell his "secret recipe" to restaurants. He frequently slept in his car and almost exclusively ate his chicken for sustenance. He achieved his objective only after he had approached 1,009 people. The 1,010th finally said yes, he thought the Colonel’s chicken was indeed "finger-lickin’ good" enough to sell to the public.

The rest is fast-food history.

Thomas Edison failed nine thousand times before he perfected his invention of the light bulb. (Was he distressed by the number of failed attempts? He is reputed to have said, "I’m glad to have found 8,999 ways to not invent the light

bulb!") He later went on to secure 1,093 patents, more than any other person in U.S. history.

What about Michael Jordan? The first time he tried out for the varsity team at his high school, he didn’t make the cut. That fueled him to become a better player—practicing every day until the next year’s tryouts—and ultimately, he became the best there ever was in the sport. He simply never quit.

There are multitudes of stories like this, enough to fill a library. Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, the astronauts of Apollo 13, Ray Kroc, Sir Edmund Hillary and, yes, Winston Churchill, too. There are so many others, both famous and not at all well known. You have probably met someone in your own life who has summoned this resource, refused to quit, and accomplished something great because of it.

I don’t know of any other characteristic more important to achieving success than persistence, the first cousin of will.

Never has there been a time when this incredible virtue has failed to create greatness in the person whose heart and soul has been gallantly given in pursuit of a dream. You can be such a person.

Excerpted from "The Street Kid’s Guide to Having it All" By John Assaraf, aka "The Street Kid" http://www.thestreetkid.com 4

Power Factor #1: Persistence

Power Factor #1. Persistence

You’ve probably heard of the incredibly popular and profitable Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. When the first collection of stories was published, it was a near-instant success, but this belies the fact that there’s a story of amazing persistence behind it. The creators of the series, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield, approached more than fifty publishers with their book idea before one agreed to give it a try. Think about this for a moment. That means fifty rejection letters, fifty people who told them "I don’t want your book," fifty people who passed. It was a costly error for those less-than-visionary publishers; the pair has since sold more than 75 million books, garnering unimagined profits for the lone publisher who was willing to take a chance.

"Those who are blessed with the most talent don’t necessarily outperform everyone else. It’s the people with follow-through who excel."

—Mary Kay Ash

When should you give up? When do you throw in the towel and abandon the journey, the mission, the purpose, and your dreams? When would you give up on teaching a baby to walk? Toddlers are not very good at it when they start; in fact, they wobble around, have to hang onto other people and furniture to stand up, and fall down all the time. But do you let that discourage you?

What about a business venture? Finding the love of your life? A lost brother or sister? Will you let short-term setbacks and missteps deter you from your dream?

Some things are even worth dying for; others must be handled with caution because you might be better off moving in a different direction.

For example, if you were heavily invested in a sector of the stock market that was proving to be a dog, all the persistence in the world could leave you bankrupt. On the other hand, if you were trying to close a deal that could catapult your company to the next level, you’d probably be wise to do whatever it took without being dishonest to get the deal done.

Finding different ways to accomplish something is a critical virtue for success. Trying all you can and never quitting until every last possibility is exhausted is the quality that separates the leaders and winners from the mediocre. When Winston Churchill told us when we should quit—never, never, never—he didn’t mean that we ought to be irrationally stubborn, just that we ought to stand by our convictions so long as they continue to be both sensible and noble.

"Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming

might of the enemy."

—Winston Churchill

Excerpted from "The Street Kid’s Guide to Having it All" By John Assaraf, aka "The Street Kid" http://www.thestreetkid.com

How to Develop and Utilize the 7 Power Factors of Success

Foster the 7 Power Factors of Success

"Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying.

When you have it, you know it."

—Ralph Ellison

Every successful entrepreneur, company, entertainer, or athlete has several key ingredients, which I call "power factors," that are critical for playing and achieving at the highest level. Some people have more of one than another, and that’s perfectly okay. It’s your responsibility to take notice of what you have, what you can develop (strengths), and what you must manage (weaknesses).

The 7 power factors are:

Persistence

Attitude

Discipline

Vision

Purpose

Focus

Action

Starting with the next post, let’s look at what each one means and begin to develop the mind-set of the high achiever.

Excerpted from "The Street Kid’s Guide to Having it All" By John Assaraf, aka "The Street Kid" http://www.thestreetkid.c