In 1953, a beekeeper from Auckland, New Zealand earned world recognition with fame and fortune to follow. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his accomplishment, Sir Edmund Hillary and his native guide, Tenzing Norgay became the first two people to climb Mount Everest and safely return after having tried and failed on two previous attempts.
Hillary had two obvious character strengths which literally took him to the very top ... vision and PERSISTENCE. Without Persistence, all his skills would have meant nothing. These qualities and characteristics are the same as those you need to lead you to the top of your mountain. You are confronted by mountains every day. You can either climb the mountains, or remain in the foothills. Any successful person will tell you that Persistence is absolutely essential to climbing the mountains and changing your results.
The individuals who remain in the foothills have never chosen to develop this strength. These people dream of being stars. They want to receive the fame and fortune, but fame is not a common suitor. Fame only comes calling after a high price has been paid, and many people march in the foothills and refuse to pay that price.
Napoleon Hill wrote in his book “Think and Grow Rich”, “There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence, but that quality is to the character of the human being what carbon is to steel.”
Hill was right. Persistence is a unique mental strength, a strength which is essential to combat the fierce power of repeated rejections and numerous other obstacles that sit in waiting, and are all a part of winning in a fast-moving, ever-changing world.
There are hundreds of biographies of highly successful men and women who have cut a path for others to follow while leaving their mark on the scrolls of history. Every one of these great individuals were persistent. In many cases, it was the only quality which separated them from everyone else.
Consider Ben Hogan. He weighed only 135 pounds, but every ounce was saturated with Persistence. Born into a poor family, Hogan began to caddy at a local golf club as a boy to earn extra money for his family. This led to the birth of a dream. He would become a great golfer.
Through a great deal of hard work, practice and Persistence, Ben Hogan became one of the world’s greatest golfers. In 1948, he won the United States Open Championship. His accomplishments earned him world recognition, but he had not yet faced his mountain.
The next year, Hogan was involved in a head-on collision with a bus, and he was not expected to survive his injuries. He did, but the doctors said he would never walk again. That was their opinion, not Ben Hogan’s. He insisted his golf clubs be put in the corner of his hospital room as he began to visualize himself playing golf again.
One year later, Hogan won the United States Open Championship again. The next year he won three major championships. In all, 54 of his victories followed that near-tragic accident. Does Persistence pay? Ask Ben Hogan.
Another person who has aptly demonstrated how far Persistence can take you is the late Charlie Boswell. Boswell was a Birmingham, Alabama businessman, salesman, author and golfer. He holds numerous national and international golf championships. But what really distinguishes him was that he was blind. That’s right. Charlie Boswell lost his sight after being blown off a tank in the Second World War. Selling, golfing and writing were all the pursuits Boswell had engaged in after his tragic mishap.
Do you think Charlie Boswell is persistent? You alone decide to quit or to continue when those inevitable mountains loom up on the road to your goal.
Whatever you conceive and believe, through persistence you must achieve. Decide RIGHT NOW to be one of those people who make it happen, to be one of the group who receives the lion’s share of the profits. Understand that to join this select group of big producers, you must begin your Persistence exercises now. Make Persistence your most well-developed habit. Persistence cannot be replaced by any other quality. Superior skills will not make up for it. A well-rounded formal education cannot replace it. Nor will calculated plans, nor a magnetic personality. When you are persistent, you will become a leader in your industry.
“Nothing in the 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. The slogan ‘Press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge
The people who never tackle the mountains, who perpetually wander in the foothills most of their lives have, in my opinion, lied to themselves and everyone else who would listen so often and for so long that they are no longer even aware of what they are doing.
They say they are content with their results. They will say that climbing a mountain is not important to them ... that they are getting by just fine the way they are. Odds are, they secretly started to climb the mountain years ago and got scared. They hit the terror barrier, quickly retreated to their comfort zone, and have been hiding behind their own false rationale ever since.
They frequently justify their sick, mediocre performance with statements like, “Why should I go all out? When I get there, the boss will just want more.”
These non-productive individuals are lost, or at best, misguided. If you are not able to wake them up, make certain that you do not permit them to pull you into their trap. In fact, when you come in contact with these type of individuals let them serve as a triggering mechanism to mentally double your commitment to yourself to become more persistent.
How do you become persistent? That’s a good question. Persistence is never developed by accident. You’re not born with it and you cannot inherit it, and there is no one in the entire world that can develop Persistence for you.
Persistence is as interwoven with success as the chicken is with the egg.
Ultimately, Persistence becomes a way of life. But that’s not where it begins. To develop the habit, Persistence, you must first want something. You have to want something so much that it becomes a heated desire, a passion in your belly. You must fall in love with the idea. Yes, LITERALLY fall in love with the idea. Magnetize yourself to every part of the idea. Then, Persistence will be automatic. The very idea of not persisting will become hateful, and anyone who even attempted to take your dream away from you or stop you, or even slow you down, would be in serious trouble. Difficulties, obstacles, and challenges will definitely appear on a regular basis, but because of your Persistence, you will achieve victory every time.
Very few people have admitted to themselves that THIS is what I want. This is what I REALLY want, and I’m prepared to give my life for it.
That last statement may cause you to sit up and say, “Wait a minute!” And that’s fine. But you should seriously think about it, because you’re already giving your life for what you are doing.
What are you doing? What are you trading your life for? Are you making a fair trade? Remember, whatever you’re doing was your decision. OR WAS IT? You could possibly be one of those unfortunate people who have been wandering in the foothills leaving the decisions of where you are going and what you are doing with your life to other people ... just following. Always following.
Treat this message on Persistence as your wake-up call. This red-hot message on Persistence will help you get out of the foothills and lead you to the very top of the mountain, all the way to the summit. It’s not a chair-lift. It will not make the climb any easier. You’ll still attract the necessary problems, and they’ll come to strengthen you. But this message will definitely make the climb to the top of the mountain a lot more fun! It will also help you develop the granite strong attitude, the certainty, the inner knowing that you will get to the top. The summit will be yours, and the view from the top is going to be awesome! It will be reward enough for all the problems that you encountered to get there.
Talking about summits and Persistence, let’s go back and think about Ed Hillary. What kind of a passion do you suppose he felt for his goal? He must have truly wanted to climb that mountain. Think of the physical and mental abuse he was subjecting himself to! He was obviously prepared to give his life for what he wanted. Every person who had ever seriously attempted to climb Everest, as far back as our history records go, show they either failed miserably, or experienced a tragic death trying.
Most people, when they think about Sir Edmund Hillary and his expeditions ask, “What kept him going year after year?” He WANTED. That’s what kept him going. That is why he was Persistent. He wanted, really wanted at a gut level something enough to keep going.
When a person does not understand that, they’ll usually ask, “WHY? Why did he want it?” He didn’t know why. He didn’t have to know why. “Why” wasn’t important. “Want” was important.
Persistent people never know why they want. They only know that they want and they must have it, and to have it, they must do, and to do they must be. They want it so much that they keep imaging it until they become the living, breathing embodiment of whatever the want represents, for those are steps which MUST be followed for the creative process to work in our life.
Ordinary people did extraordinary things because they consciously recognized what they wanted, and they refused to suppress or dismiss it. They would not let it go, even if failure, rejection, bankruptcy or death was staring them in the face. It would have to be that way, or the ordinary person would never DO the extraordinary. They would never persist. The power of their want, and the intensity of their Persistence caused them to draw on resources they previously were not aware they possessed. They expressed what they had within ... GREATNESS.
“If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.” Dottie Boreyko
The great psychologist, Alfred Adler, nailed it when he said, “I am grateful to the idea that has used me.”
The very idea of Persistence filled every cell of Ben Hogan’s being, but that was because his want was so strong. Remember, Persistence is the real focus of this message. It’s important that we keep that in mind because we could very easily get lost climbing Mount Everest with Ed Hillary, or playing golf with Hogan. They’re not the stars of this movie. They’re playing a supporting role. Persistence is the star.
Properly digest it in your mind ... Persistence will make you a star. It will give you that number one hit worldwide. How does an idea, a want, a dream get such a grip on a person that Persistence becomes a natural outgrowth of it?
Napoleon Hill explained this very well. Hill said at first the idea, the want, has to be coaxed, nursed and enticed just to remain alive, but gradually the idea will take on a power of its own and sweep aside all opposition. It will then coax, nurse and drive you.
He went on to explain that ideas are like that. They have more power than the physical brains that gave birth to them. They have the power to live on long after the physical brain that’s created them has turned to dust.
Have you decided what you want? It is almost a waste of time attempting to develop Persistence if the want is not there, because the problems of life will defeat you.
It’s a well-known and documented fact that the problems in life are numerous. They come frequently and are often giants. When the dream is big enough, however the problems will be beaten and the facts won’t count.
You must give these two concepts priority in your life ... wants and Persistence.
Make your want big and you will persist. Decide what you TRULY want and you will be persistent. Remember “If the want’s big enough, the facts don’t count.” And also remember what Napoleon Hill said. “There may be no heroic connotation to the word “persistence,” but the quality is to the character of the human being what carbon is to steel.”
Go and do it. Study success. Choose your want and persist. Life will then be what it’s meant to be.
-Bob Proctor