Persistence is a Two-Edged Sword
Probably everyone has read the famous quote by President Calvin Coolidge in which he states that “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.” A common truism is that “persistence is the twin sister of excellence.” And a Japanese proverb states that “money grows on the tree of persistence.”
Everybody praises persistence. And yet… and yet…
Today’s guest author Royane Real suggests we might benefit from a bit of contrarian thinking. In fact, she pauses to share with us a closer look at this much vaunted virtue.
Persistence – the Key to Failure?
By Royane Real
If you really want to be successful, you probably spend a lot of time reading motivational books and articles. You want to know what qualities are required for success.
When we read about the tools required to achieve success, very often we are told that if we really want to be successful, we must have persistence.
Persistence is the quality of never giving up when we encounter challenges. Of holding on to our dream. Of refusing to be discouraged no matter what the odds, no matter what happens.
And when you read the life stories of very successful people, they will often tell you about all the hardships they encountered along the way. They will tell you about the discouragement they occasionally felt when they encountered failure, and about all the people who laughed at them along the way.
And then they will often tell you that the reason they are successful today is because they were persistent. They persevered in chasing their dream, no matter what happened.
So if you have been facing a bit of discouragement while you pursue your dream, reading these success gurus can give you the boost you need to keep on doing what you’ve been doing. After all, persistence is the key to success.
Almost everyone says so.
And all those people who encourage you to be persistent are wrong! Persistence can lead to certain failure if you do not apply persistence in the right way.
Let me explain what these people are leaving out when they tell you to be persistent.
A Case of Blind Persistence
Every day as I drive to work in the city where I live, I always see a middle-aged blonde woman who paces back and forth on the sidewalk in front of a big government building. She is always carrying a big protest sign. She smiles and waves at all the cars that pass.
I’m not sure exactly what her sign says because the words don’t really make any sense.
There seems to be something about an injustice that happened to her when her husband’s pension was divided up during their divorce. And there are a few comments about a government conspiracy to cover up the injustice that was done to her. I guess what she’s trying to accomplish with her protest is, she’s trying to get this divorce decision changed.
Every day, no matter what the weather, this woman comes out to walk back and forth for two hours in front of this government building and wave at all the people. Her smile never fails.
After the first two hours of protesting are up, she goes to another place downtown. She spends another two hours walking back and forth, smiling and waving, in front of a different building a few blocks away.
She has been doing this every day for at least seventeen years.
She is certainly persistent.
All that persistence and dedication for so many years does not seem to be having any effect, but she does not seem to notice.
If seventeen years of her walking back and forth carrying this sign hasn’t had any effect, I don’t think that one more day of walking with this sign is going to change the outcome of her divorce. But she is persistent in continuing her protest.
Probably every big city has a few people like this woman, people you can see standing on the sidewalk. People who spends years holding some sign that doesn’t make sense.
The Real Lesson
These people can teach us all about the real value of perseverance and persistence.
These people are certainly very persistent, but usually they are not successful.
When success gurus tell us that persistence is an important quality on the road to success, they are often leaving out something important.
When successful people tell you that they got to where they are today because they were persistent, they are actually leaving out part of the story. A very important part of the story.
And the part that they are leaving out is this: They forget to tell you that before they were persistent, they had a goal, and they had a plan on how to get there.
And all along the way, after every step they took, they stepped back to evaluate the results to see if the results they were getting were the results they wanted. And if they weren’t getting the results they wanted, then they would change the steps they took, and try something different, until they found a method that worked for them.
True Persistence Has a Steering Wheel
These successful people did have persistence, but they were only persistent about holding on to their vision.
They were never persistent about the method they took to get to their goal.
All along the way, they were prepared to be very flexible and experiment to see what techniques and strategies worked best to get where they wanted to go.
Why do so many successful people leave out this important detail when they tell us the secrets to their success? Why do they so often neglect to mention that if a strategy wasn’t working, they abandoned it quickly and moved on to another strategy?
I don’t think that successful people deliberately leave out this key information because they don’t want us to be successful.
I think that successful people often leave out this key detail because they assume it’s very obvious to everyone already. They assume that everyone already knows that you test each step of what you are doing to see whether it’s working or not. And if it’s not working, you change it. And you keep trying new approaches til you get something that works, something that gets you closer to the result you want.
Persistence Leads to Light
People who admire persistence often use the example of Thomas Edison who kept trying to produce an electrical light bulb even after ten thousand failed attempts.
But people often forget that while Thomas Edison was persistent in believing in his goal, he was not persistent in the way he tried to achieve it. Thomas Edison did not repeat the same experiment over and over again ten thousand times.
Thomas Edison performed about ten thousand different experiments on his way to trying to find a practical electrical light bulb.
Every time he tried an experiment to produce an electric light bulb, he then stepped back and took some time to evaluate the results. He figured out what was working and what wasn’t working. Then he would try something different the next time. And he would keep track of the results.
So, remember this crucial difference the next time someone tries to tell you that persistence is the key to success.
Without taking some time to evaluate whether or not what you do is actually working, you can be persistent for years, and not achieve the goals you want.
So, if you want to be successful, be sure to hold on to your dream, but remember to check frequently whether the actions you are taking are getting you closer to your goals.
This article is written by Royane Real, author of several self improvement books available at her website, including “How You Can Be Smarter – Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” If you would like to learn how to boost your brain power, download it today at http://www.royanereal.com
Back to Charles:
And the lesson to take away from this? Real Persistence is agile, aware and flexible. Without those qualities, it’s only blind, pig-headed stubbornness.
I once knew a young guy, Frank, who ran a gas station on a little side road on the outskirts of our town. The station had once been a thriving business, but after the big expressway was built, few people drove down the old road. Frank hung on and hung on for years, always thinking the business would come back. It never did.
What a waste. He could have simply shut it down, moved to a better location and ended the useless struggle. But he didn’t because he was being “persistent.”
Do you have things in your life that don’t work, haven’t been working for a long time, and are unlikely to ever work? If so, do what Edison did. Test something else. Then something else. Keep doing that till you find what works. That’s real persistence.
Do you have an equivalent of Frank’s gas station in your life? If so, what will you do about it? Today – right now?
Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
Charles
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