“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy Adams
Books like ‘Coach yourself to success’ and ‘Trump: how to get rich’ are a penny a dozen these days. Everyone, from the car audio dealer to the local dress maker wants to learn the secret to business success, so much so that they’re hiring the DVD of ‘The Secret’ over and over again.
But there are a few classics that will always outclass the new age pulp fiction and ‘The Greatest Salesman in the World’, by Og Mandino is one of these and the first place that the phrase, ‘persistence’ was coined in terms of business success. In fact, Mandino devoted an entire chapter to persistence; he wrote:
“I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step? If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult…. I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.”
Paul Meyer, from the successful South African business, Assist247, attributes all his success to that one small factor: persistence. He tells the story of how he realised that the secret of business success lies in perseverance:
“Many years ago, a great friend of mine had his first job as a newlywed and father (at the ripe old age of 19), which was to sell Japanese prints door-to-door. He told me he would often go through a whole block of 100 apartments or more without selling one, and I asked him if he eventually developed a magic line that would convince people to buy from him. His answer was the following: “Yes, I would fall down on my knees and grab their ankles, pleading in my most desperate voice ‘please buy a print from me, my family’s starving’”.
He went on to become very successful; so, the moral of the story is that people are always looking for a magic line, yet there is no such thing. Like Og Mandino said: the true secret to success is simply perseverance.
For most normal people it takes years to build a successful business and the only tip I have is to never give up. Hold onto your ideas and believe in them, and others will follow”.
I will end off with a quote from Calvin Coolidge, an ex-president of the United States, which says it all:
“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”.
Business success is what puts food on our tables, so it may be time for more South Africans to take on the philosophy of persistence, whether it involves going door-to-door or taking a cue from Paul Meyer to advertise business online.
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