Persistence Cures Failure

Lately I've been bombarded with people telling me to keep going - to keep doing what I'm doing. It's refreshing and incredibly helpful, especially after a long time of not getting much recognition for my efforts. It tells me I'm on the right path and I just have to keep going, even though it's hard.

Sometimes the most awesome thing to do is also the hardest. You'll run into obstacles left and right. You'll have support withdrawn. You'll lose funding. You'll lose sponsors. You'll be rejected repeatedly. Something will take longer than you expected. The software won't work correctly. The information won't be where you expected. The list of potential problems is miles long.

It's easy to get discouraged.

It's easy to give up. But, as they say, that would be going home. Going home doesn't yield any rewards. It doesn't make a person impressive or successful. It makes you a failure, but not just any kind of failure. No, this is a failure of weakness and cowardice.

In short, if you go home, you're a weak wuss.

Instead, you want to go big. You want to overcome whatever challenges come your way. You want every obstacle to be transformed into opportunity for something more spectacular, more wonderful, and more awesome. And if you fail when you go big, it doesn't matter. Failing like that is wonderful because you put everything you had into whatever you were doing. No one blames you for failing. And hopefully you can learn something from the experience and go on to go big when trying for some other dream.

Of course, if you fail, you could just keep trying.

I'm thinking of the boxer that just keeps getting up to get punched one more time before coming back for another round (Rocky style). I'm thinking of J.K. Rowling who kept writing and submitting because she knew Mr. Potter was worth it. I'm thinking of Rudy and Benjamin Mee. There are so many examples of people picking themselves up again and continuing despite however many times they fall.

If you fall six times, stand up seven.

When you're down on the ground, covered in blood, sweat, and tears, it's easy to focus on the pain of the present. But that's not why you started in the first place. You started because you had an awesome idea - a dream you wanted to fulfill. The pain is temporary. It's a step in the path towards your dream - but it's just one. And then it will be over.

The key is to push past the pain to the other side - to the next step, whatever that may be. And it isn't easy. Maybe you won't get much encouragement. Maybe no one knows who you are, or recognizes the value of your dream. Maybe it will take a while before you'll get any traction. But once you do, you can't stop. You have to keep going. You have to keep pushing - persisting. Because that is the crucial moment. That is the time when you have the choice that will make or break you. You can stop, and all your work will amount to nothing, or you can keep going, and your wildest dreams will be more awesome than you can possibly imagine.

That's my plan. Are you with me?