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
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