The Great Value in Staying the Course

Key takeaways:

Stubbornness is an asset. 
Stay the course during trying times.
Choose confidence over foolish pride.

In 30+ years of working with startup and early-stage companies, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with and for some truly talented professionals. I am sure you know the type of person I am speaking of:  For all outward appearances these people seem to have the “Midas touch.” Everything they touch seems to turn to gold. Every project, every program and every company they are involved with ultimately becomes successful. 

The keyword to focus on here is ultimately.

These overachievers each had talents of varying degrees, and each had one or two in particular where their talent was simply off the charts. Without exception, however, they all also had one common trait to the nth degree. My observation is that this one trait trumps all others in its critical value in both the short and long terms of building a successful business or career. That trait is simply persistence.

Everyone on the planet will fail at times. At one time or another we will all miss a quota, lose a large deal or simply not be able to fully execute on a plan for reasons beyond our control.  The people who ultimately do win, however, are those who have an unbreakable resolve and determination to achieve the goal at hand. There is never any doubt whatsoever that they will be successful. They approach everything they do with the full confidence that they will in fact succeed.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word persist as follows:

to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning

This aptly describes a path to ultimate success that we can all follow. Stubbornness is usually viewed as a negative quality. If, however, stubbornness is viewed as being totally committed to the task at hand and never wavering in our resolve to successfully finish the job, then it is a quality that we should all strive to develop.

The attitude with which successful people approach any task is one of supreme confidence. To be clear, what we are describing here is not in any way egotistical or self-aggrandizement. It is simply that their approach is to stay completely focused on the task at hand. The mission is never just about making a sale or completing a project, it is always about bettering the world and helping more people by expanding the offering of the value your product or company provides. 

If there were one person I could point to who demonstrated this quality throughout a very successful and meaningful life, it would be Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Roosevelts were one of America’s most successful families. Eleanor was not college educated, felt that she was the ugly duckling of her family, and she was a bit awkward and clumsy. She did not have the beauty or the eloquence of her mother. As a child she was reminded of this often and as a result became terribly timid.

She did come to realize, though, that she had the ability to see things for what they really were. She had an uncommon amount of common sense. She learned to look beyond what people wanted you to see and she understood the importance of asking questions about everything to understand what was really happening.

A review of her accomplishments in life would require far more time and space than we have here, but leave it to say that she always kept moving forward, she always kept a schedule that tended to tire out people half her age and she simply never stopped.  One of the many books she authored was titled You Learn by Living — which is a great way to approach business and life. I encourage you to learn more about this great American and her successful approach to life. 

If you do, you will ultimately become successful.