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