The Truth About Persistence

Persistence is often described as the ultimate key to success, but what most people don’t realize is that there are three different types of persistence.

The three types of persistence are:

1. Blind Persistence
2. Random Persistence
3. Planned Persistence

Imagine for a moment that you are standing in front of a safe containing 10 million dollars. The safe has a 4 digit combination lock and if you can find the right combination within 24 hours, you can claim the 10 million dollars as your own.

Blind Persistence
The blind persistence approach is to decide that you know for a fact that the combination is ’7318′ and to spend the next 24 hours entering this same combination and trying to open the door.

Random Persistence
The random persistence approach is to try different combinations at random and hope that you get lucky. The problem with this approach is that after a few attempts, you won’t remember which combinations you’ve tried and which you haven’t.

Planned Persistence
The planned persistence approach is to start with ’0000′ and then try ’0001′, ’0002′, ’0003′…until you reach the right combination. If you enter one combination every 8 seconds, it will take you just over 22 hours to try every combination possible. This approach therefore guarantees you success.
As you can see, blind persistence and random persistence rarely lead to success. The key to achieving your most important life goals is to learn to use planned persistence.
Here’s a real world example to show you what I mean.
Rob is trying to attract more customers to his automotive repair business.

Blind Persistence
He decides to put an ‘A’ frame sign in front of his shop and waits for the customers to come through the door. Nothing happens… He waits for three long weeks before realising that his approach isn’t working.

Random Persistence
His next approach is to try as many random marketing techniques as he can think of. He drops flyers into mail boxes, puts an ad in the newspaper and has a glossy brochure printed. He gets a few more customers but doesn’t know where they’re coming from.

Planned Persistence
Finally, Rob decides to sit down and think things through. He decides to run another ad in the newspaper and to monitor his results by asking every new customer how they found him. After three weeks, his results show that only one customer came from his newspaper ad while 12 customers came in as a result of his mail box flyers. He therefore decides not to advertise in the newspaper and puts the money he saves into expanding his mail box flyer campaign.

Rob is now using planned persistence and is on his way to achieving his goal of building a profitable business.
This Week’s Action Steps
(1) Decide on your goal and stick with it.
(2) Understand that to achieve your goal you need to use ‘planned persistence’ which involves carefully planned experimentation.
(3) Create a written plan of action of things to try.
(4) Try different techniques and monitor your results carefully.
(5) Discard what doesn’t work and move on to your next experiment until you find the combination that unlocks your dreams.

Until next time,
Dare To Dream!
Anthony

Karoly Takacs - A Hero, An Inspiration

Karoly Takacs is an excellent example of the infinite capabilities of the human will power. Despite being a right-handed person, he won two Olympic golds in 25m rapid fire pistol event, both with his left hand, after his right hand got injured in a faulty grenade explosion.

Born in Budapest in Hungary in 1910, Takacs had become a world class pistol shooter by 1936. He was however denied the opportunity to represent Hungary in the 1936 Summer Olympics on the grounds that he was a sergeant in the Army and only commissioned officers were allowed to compete. In 1938 however, the prohibition was lifted and he had hopes of winning the gold at the 1940 Olympics scheduled to be held in Tokyo.
And then came the fateful day. During an Army training, a faulty grenade exploded, which completely shattered Takacs' right hand. In a moment, all his dreams were shattered. Now he had the following options left before him:

1. Give up shooting : The easiest option. No one would have raised an eyebrow had he decided to do this. He had already earned a lot of sympathy.

2. Continue shooting with his left hand and live his dream :
A noble, yet difficult choice. He would have had to fight many people who would say that he can't do it.


He spent a month in the hospital. I don't know what was going on his mind in that one month. But, after getting out, he decided that his dreams are too strong too be killed by a single grenade. He started practicing with his left hand in secret.

One year later Karoly resurfaced at a National shooting championship in Hungary. His colleagues were delighted to see him and complimented him on his courage to come up at the championship to cheer for them. But Károly surprised them by saying he was there to compete with them. And he won. One year after losing his right hand and he trained himself and won. Who in the world except Károly himself would have thought this was even possible. People who believe in facts will never be able to explain this. Facts leave no room for possibilities.

Then came the real test, the Olympics. But unfortunately, the Olympics of 1940 and 1944 were cancelled due to World War II. Hence, Karoly had to wait for 8 long years for the D-day. But the day finally came. He took the world by surprise, by winning the gold at the 1948 Summer Olympics held in London, defeating the favourite Argentine Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente, who was the reigning world champion at that time.

In 1952, he removed the slightest doubt that anyone had on his capabilities by defending his gold. His story has given him a place among the "Olympic heroes" of the International Olympic Committee.

He is the answer to all those who say that they can't. His story is testimony to the infinite powers of the human spirit. I hope you feel a bit inspired after reading it.

Sources:
Karoly Takacs
The Best Real Life Motivational Story - Karoly Takacs

A Short Story on Self Confidence

 


There was a business executive who was deep in debt and could see no way out.

Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.


Suddenly an old man appeared before him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said.


After listening to the executive’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.”


Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!


“I can erase my money worries in an instant!” he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.


Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.


“I’m so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn’t been bothering you. He’s always escaping from the rest home and telling people he’s John D. Rockefeller.”

And she led the old man away by the arm.


The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he’d been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn’t the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.


Author Unknown