Persistence may be your most valuable asset

Calvin Coolidge was one of the most respected and revered Presidents of the US, the 30th, holding office from 1923 to 1929. I want, today, to share and explore some words of his - simple initially, but full of depth and profound meaning on further reflection. I believe these words remain as relevant today as they were 85 years ago:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Persistence and determination are the key to success

How powerful is that message? Talent is not a guarantee of success – we can all think of people we have known who were talented, but failed to achieve success. It wasn’t enough.

Genius alone will not cut it – and though it hurts an educator to admit it – education won’t carry anyone to sure fire success. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.

We can add further to these words from the writings of Napoleon Hill, about 10 years after Coolidge was in office. In his seminal book “Think & Grow Rich” (Rich in this sense was talking about richness of life rather than monetary wealth) Hill wrote things which have been the bedrock of the personal development beliefs across the world right to today. That book has sold over 30 million copies in 75 years. In it, he states; “Persistence is a state of mind, therefore, it can be cultivated….Before success comes in any person’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a person, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of people do. More than five hundred of the most successful people this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”

Never give up

Persistence is a state of mind and can be cultivated – nobody needs to ever feel sad that they were somehow not blessed with a required sufficiency of persistence. That makes it a trait of character, a matter of what we choose to include in who we really are.

For most young people, there will be some key, critical times in your life when your inclination to persist will be the difference between success or failure. Like most exemplary character traits it’s easy to be persistent 99% of the time. However, what swings the balance is whether you are one of the rarest of the rare who can draw on a willingness to persist in the other 1% of occasions.

To really understand what it is to persist, I want to share three examples – examples of very different people whose persistence has shone out, that shows us what it is to truly live a life on purpose.

1) The first person is the iconic, sadly now deceased, Steve Jobs. We all know him as the man behind the coolest products – the I-pod, the I-phone and the I-pad.

Jobs achieved great success at a young age. When he was 20, he started Apple in his parents’ garage, and within 10 years, the company had become a $2-billion empire. However, when Jobs was still just 30, Apple’s Board of Directors decided to take the business in a different direction, and Jobs was fired from the company he had created. Jobs found himself unemployed, but treated it as a freedom rather than a curse. In fact, he later said that getting fired from Apple was the best thing to ever happen to him, because it allowed him to think more creatively and re-experience the joys of starting a company.

Jobs went on to found NeXT, a software company, and Pixar, the company that produced animated movies such as Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Cars. NeXT was subsequently purchased by Apple. Not only did Jobs go back to his former company, but he helped launch Apple’s current massive growth in popularity. Jobs claimed that his career success and his strong relationship with his family were both results of his termination from Apple.

2) Looking for new challenges

Simon Cowell is a TV personality who can stimulate varying emotions. However, whether you love or hate his TV persona you cannot doubt the man’s success. He is a modern day pop icon and very rich too. But early in life, Cowell faced his fair share of struggles. At age 15, Cowell dropped out of school and bounced around jobs. He eventually landed a job in the mail room of EMI Music Publishing. Cowell worked his way up to the A&R department, and then went on to form his own publishing company, E&S Music.

Unfortunately, E&S folded in its first year. Cowell ended up with a lot of debt, and was forced to move back in with his parents. But he never gave up on his dream of working in the music industry, and eventually landed a job with a small company called Fanfare Records. He worked there for 8 years and helped the company become a very successful label. From there, Cowell spent years signing talent and working behind-the-scenes before launching the “American Idol” and “X-Factor” franchises that made him famous.

Even though he is rich and successful, Cowell continues to work on new projects. This kind of persistence no doubt helped him overcome his early roadblocks.

3) A case of extreme persistence

The final example I would like to include is quite different. He was the author of a book – a very small book, but one of my all-time favourites. It’s called “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and he was a Frenchman named Jean-Dominique Bauby. At the time when he wrote it, Bauby had formerly been the editor of French fashion magazine, Elle. It’s the only book he ever wrote and it’s just 140 pages long. So, you could be excused for wondering what could possibly make it special.

But then you need to know a little more of Bauby’s circumstances. You see, he suffered a massive stroke. When he came out of coma it was to discover that his entire body was paralysed and he had lost all ability to communicate. The only movement he had was in one solitary eyelid that could be blinked. So, that is how this incredible little book came in to being. Friends, relatives and counsellors would hold a board with the letters of the alphabet, arranged in the order of frequency of use in the French language. They would run their finger along and as it came to the letter he wanted, Bauby would blink his eye. So, little bit by bit, this book was written over many months, even edited in the same way.

Have the courage to realise your dreams

When a 100% paralysed man with no power of speech has a book inside him and can bring it out, with even a fraction of such persistence what might any of us be able to achieve? It’s important at this stage that I stress, persistence is not doggedly bashing away repeating the same actions over and over, believing that if the world would just change, then that repeated action will be successful. Rather, it’s about the resolve, determination and drive to keep trying new and innovative ideas, reading the circumstances to understand what is required of you.

In an earlier article here, I extolled the virtues of having, and pursuing, big goals. To me, persistence is the most important character trait that determines who gets to bring their dreams and goals in to reality, and who falls at the hurdles fishing around for all the excuses about why they weren’t able to reach their goals.

Young people today have loads of great ideas, wonderful passion for how they want to bring about a better world. My hope is that today’s school and college going generation find the inner strength to persist to fulfil those goals.

(The writer is the Executive Director & Head of Schools, G. D. Goenka Private School, Sharjah An initiative of Gulf Petrochem.)

mark.parkinson@gdgoenka-me.com