So…Is there ever going to be an “Easy Button?” Is instant gratification the end-all-be- all? Can we know the whole story in a sound bite. Is the best way to get rich the lottery or a good law suit? Can we get smart and achieve success by just showing up to a good school? The answer is not, “No” but, “Hell No!”
Success never comes “overnight” Sometimes it may seem so on the surface but look deeper; I bet there is a back-story of hard work and endurance. Being smart, athletic, and/or talented isn’t enough. All of that must be accompanied by hard work and persistence to be great. Ask Hank Aaron, Gandhi, Tiger Woods, Albert Einstein or Pavarotti how they reached the top… They will say hard work and persistence. My favorite cartoon hero was a quick-draw bounty hunter from the old west. His friend called him lucky after surviving a hairy gun battle. He said, “A man makes his own luck,” (ladies that goes for you too) and it is true. How do you make luck…with hard work and persistence.
The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas Alva Edison
I use to say to my boy scouts,”Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude.” Step one is to believe in yourself. Step two is, do not fear failing, but fear not trying. It is ok to fail — hopefully you learned something. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again! (I love that song) Do not let the fear of failure freeze you! Step three is get busy…be of good cheer and Get’erdone!
Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent.
Sophia Loren
(A picture of Sophia in a wet tee-shirt hung on my bedroom wall from the 8th grade on — but I never appreciated that she was more than a pretty face. Persistence… I love that in a woman.)
My favorite true story of persistence is a book called Endurance. It is the story of Lord Ernest H. Shackleton, the shipwrecked captain of a failed Antarctica expedition. After his ship was crushed in frozen ice, for well over a year, he lead all 50 of his men off the ice to safety. This man knew persistence.
If you’re going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill
Some times, even when you are losing, you must keep going. Look at George Washington. He is the only general to ever win a war by retreating from battle He did not have the resources to beat the English, yet he kept his men together and they persisted…until he could win.
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams
What a difference a day makes. (I love that song too) Things change, they always do. Stand back, take a deep breath and let time help you. Open your eyes, clear your mind, listen to your heart, be ready… and in an hour, day, or even a few weeks, things will change. The whole playing field may shift and victory is possible, but you must be in the game.
So how does this all relate to sales and Marketing? The difference between a good salesman and a great salesman is persistence. One more call, one more follow-up, one more try. It pays off to keep going in sales. It is a numbers game. Persistence will beat charm, good looks, or brains every time. Read the books of the great salesmen like Tommy Hopkins, Zig Ziegler, or hear stories about Milton or Jim Reynolds, and you will see how persistence works.. You just have to keep knocking on every door and never stop asking for the order.
The same is true for marketing. A great marketing program requires persistence. It is better to run a small ad many times than do a big flashy ad once. It is better to send several simple postcards than one fancy brochure. And it is better to rank high on a free search engine than build a flashy website. The investment will be the same but the results will be much greater.
To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish.
Benjamin Franklin
Martin Luther King once said, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea that has reached its time. How did a great idea reach it time? Persistence!
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Alva Edison
So I say, if your heart says go… “Press on.”
Education will not (take the place of persistence); 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