The Power of Persistence

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men 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."

~Calvin Coolidge

If we look throughout the world in every industry, in every culture, there’s one consistent trend among every single successful individual, and that trend is the ability to persevere beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s the ability to stand up beyond everyone else and take a step forward when everyone else sits down.

When someone has a goal, something they’re truly committed to creating, or when they say, "No matter what!" they step up beyond a shadow of a doubt and create that which they imagine in their lives.

When I was 15, I was blessed by the opportunity to walk into an Anthony Robbins seminar and it totally transformed my life. I had heard about the concepts of persistence, perseverance, of creating a vision and actualizing a vision, setting your goals and following through, but never had an experience of implementing them into my life.

When I was 16 years old, I was at my high school and a group of Neo-Nazis called West Coast Destruction were students at my school but also spent a lot of time in the area in which I worked. Day in and day out for a course of two months I was verbally and physically attacked by these Neo-Nazis and I had a choice. I got to choose whether or not I wanted to step up and defy the odds; whether I wanted to stand in the face of that which limited me, that which pushed me down, or whether I wanted to cower down into a small ball and let them get the best of me. I had the choice of pushing forward or giving up. As most of us do in an area of our lives, we have the choice of whether we persist or give up.

So when the bullies confronted me, I knew what it meant to stand up and persist. But not everyone does. And that is why I put this book together: to give people the understanding that persistence is a choice, something we get to create at any given moment. But more importantly, to show that success is a choice. The truth is that persistence equals success. What I mean by this is that if we look at those who are the most successful in the world, persistence is the common denominator. Persistence is the thing that we’ve seen in each and every individual who has created the most successful businesses, political careers, relationships, etc. Let’s take a quick look at some of the most extraordinary leaders and how persistence has shaped their lives.

There was once a politician who failed at business at the age of 21. He was defeated in a legislative race at age 22, he failed again at business at age 24, overcame the death of his lover at age 26, had a nervous breakdown at age 27, lost a congressional race at 34 and 36, lost a senatorial race at 45, failed to become vice president at 47, lost a senatorial race at 49 and then finally was elected to President of the United States of America at age 52.

Now imagine, if he had considered any of these past experiences as failures and had allowed that to stop him from moving forward, he would never have become one of the most extraordinary Presidents of the United States, Mr. Abraham Lincoln.

There’s a famous story about Thomas Edison: he tried 9,999 times to perfect the light bulb and he couldn’t do it. Someone said, "Are you going to have 10,000 failures?" And he responded, "I didn’t fail, I just discovered another way not to invent the electric light bulb."

He got to choose how he perceived his previous experiences and whether or not he perceived them as failures.

Mark Victor Hansen, a close friend of mine and an extraordinary mentor and businessman. He is the coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul Series that has now sold over 144 million copies in over 20 languages worldwide.

But did you know that over 110 publishers, in their pursuit to be published, turned down Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield? They went to New York, and it wasn’t until a publisher’s wife got a hold of the manuscript and all night long she was waking her husband saying "Look at this, look at this" Finally the publisher agreed to publish it.

The last individual I want to tell you about is Steve Jobs, the President and founder of Apple Computer. Members of his own board of directors kicked him out of his own company. He could have allowed this to stop him, but instead he stood up. It was only because he persisted that he was voted back in as Chairman of Apple. He created the iPod, the iPhone and a new line of Mac Computers. Had he not, we probably would not have ever experienced an iPod or an iPhone or now, an iPad!

As you can see the stories go on and on of the most extraordinary individuals creating powerful results, as a direct reflection of their persistence. Because time and time again, individuals are stopped along their journey. Just because they’re stopped, it doesn’t mean that they are failures or that their project will never work. It simply means that they’re one step closer to achieving the result that they desire.