PERSIST UNTIL YOU SUCCEED

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill; great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance–Samuel Johnson

One of the most astonishing aspect of life that has caught my attention is the power of  persistence. Only last Sunday I saw this virtue in reality during the week17 match of the Nigerian Professional Football League. I was opportune to watch the game  between home side Plateau United of Jos versus Katsina United ,the match was almost ending in a draw but against the run of play the home side persisted until the goal came in the 93^rd minute of play despite the fans leaving the stadium in despair .Sincerely I saw the power of persistence  at work.

Every great success in your life will represent a triumph of persistence. Your ability to decide what you want, to begin, and then to persist through all obstacles and difficulties until you achieve your goals is the critical determinant of your success. And the flip side of persistence is courage.

Perhaps the great challenge that you will ever face in life is the conquest of fear and the development of the habit of courage. Winston Churchill once wrote, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.”

Persistence is the Hallmark of Success

Successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs are all characterized by indomitable willpower and unshakeable persistence.

            In 1895, America was in the grip of a terrible depression. A man living in the Midwest lost his hotel in the midst of this depression and decided to write a book to motivate and inspire others to persist and carry on in spite of the difficulties facing the nation.

            His name was Orison Swett Marden. He took a room above a livery stable and for an entire year he worked night and day writing a book, which he entitled Pushing to the Front.Late one evening, he finally finished the last page of his book and, being tired and hungry, he went down the street to a small café for dinner. While he was away for an hour, the livery stable caught on fire. By the time he got back, his entire manuscript, more than eight hundred pages, had been destroyed by the flames.

             Nonetheless, drawing on his inner resources, he sat down and spent another year writing the book over again. When the book was finished, he offered it to various publishers, but no one seemed to be interested in a motivational book with the country in such a depression and unemployment so high. He then moved to Chicago and took another job. One day he mentioned this manuscript to a friend of his who happened to know a publisher. The book, pushing to the Front, was subsequently published and became the runaway bestseller in the nation.

            Pushing to the Front was acclaimed by the leading businesspeople and politicians in America as being the book that brought America into the twentieth century. It exerted an enormous impact on the minds of decision makers throughout the country and became the single greatest classic in all of personal development. People like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and J.P. Morgan all read this book and were inspired by it.

According to Orison Swett Marden,in his book ”There are two essential requirements for success. The first is get to-it-ive-ness,and the second is ‘stick-to-it-ivness.”He wrote,’No,there is no failure for the man  who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up,who pushes on when everyone else turns back.”(Goals by Brian Tracy)

All successful persons have learned how vital this quality and virtue of persistence is in achieving meaningful success.

Ladies and gentle men, you may be at the threshold of winding up in a genuine venture. I declare to you to persist because you are at the verge of arriving at your destination.

I look forward to meeting you this Saturday at our Global Business Summit.

Please plan to attend if you are a business person or intending to venture into one. Whatsoever profitable that keeps you busy is a business, be it ministry or any career.

I want you to know that there is always a word in due season and your due season is now.

Charles Ejoh is the Convener of the GLOBAL BUSINESS SUMMIT,he is also the Ag.Director-General of Global Center for Media and Human Empowerment.