Perseverance is not an issue of talent. It is not an issue of time. It is about finishing. Talent provides hope for accomplishment, but perseverance guarantees it. Playwright Noel Coward commented, “Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power?”
Daring to Dream
In July 2000, Vonetta Mowers landed in Sacramento, California, ready to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials for a place on the American team that would travel to Sydney, Australia, for the summer games. She had been training for it her whole life.
Vonetta had dreamed about being in the Olympics since she was a small child. She ran everywhere as a kid, and at age nine, when she had a chance to try out with an inner-city track club called the Alabama Striders in Birmingham, she gladly seized it. When the coach later looked over the list of times children ran in the 50-yard dash and saw that V. Jeffrey had the fastest time of all the kids in Jonesboro Elementary School, he assumed the time had come from one of the older boys. He was shocked to find out that it belonged to Vonetta—a third grade girl! Vonetta quickly became a star among the club’s runners.
An excellent athlete, Vonetta lettered in track, volleyball, and basketball in high school and was named MVP of her track team three seasons. In college she focused exclusively on track, competing in the 200 and 400-meter sprints, long jump, triple jump, heptathlon, and relays. She was named all-American seven times.
At age twenty - Six, Vonetta was competing as an elite athlete, and she was on course to make the Sydney team. She had tried out for the 1996 team at age twenty-two, competing in the 100-meter dash and long jump, but she hadn’t made it. That had been tough for her. But she had dreamed of competing in the Olympics since she was nine, so she decided to put in four more years of grueling training, delayed starting a family, and gave it one more try. “In the years after college, while I worked as an assistant track coach,” writes Flowers, “I continued my own training. I devoted countless hours to lifting weights, eating right, and staying mentally tough. I knew that my time as an athlete was coming to an end, and I’d hoped that the 2000 Olympic trials would prove to be my year to finally find out what it’s like to be an Olympian.” But despite all her hopes, all her efforts, all her talent, Vonetta’s best effort at the 2000 trials wasn’t good enough. She did not finish with a good in failure. Her Olympic dream was over.
Give Up or Go On?
But a funny thing happened while she was in Sacramento. Her husband, Johnny, saw a flyer posted in a hallway. It read,
Continue Your Olympic Dream by
Trying Out for the Bobsled Team
Ideal candidates should be able to perform the following:
30 meters
60 meters
100 meters
Five Consecutive Hops
Vertical Jump
Shot Put Toss
Please call Bonny at [number] or come to
Davidson High School track on [date] for tryouts.
Johnny was very excited about it, but Vonetta wasn’t. She knew nothing about bobsleds, she had never lived anywhere that it snowed, and she was still crestfallen about failing in the summer games trials.
Vonetta was at a crossroads. Her talent had seemed almost limitless, yet it hadn’t carried her to her dream. Now here was another opportunity. But it wasn’t in her sport. It wasn’t even in her Olympics—the summer games. And even if she succeeded in passing the “audition,” it would mean starting over again in a new sport on unfamiliar ground—ice. It would require a degree of perseverance beyond what she had already displayed.
Reluctantly Vonetta agreed to attend the tryouts. She discovered that her experience as a sprinter and triple jumper and her training with weights had prepared her well to become a bobsled brakewoman (the person who pushes the bobsled and rides with the driver). It took her two years of learning, training, and competing—along with the ability to survive the soap opera of drivers changing brakewomen multiple times—but she finally not as a track athlete in the summer games, but as a bobsledder in the wildest Olympics. And in 2002, her perseverance paid off beyond her wildest dreams. Much to everyone’s surprise, Vonetta and her driver, Jill Bakken, won the gold medal! And with that, Vonetta went into the record books as the first African-American to win a gold medal in a winter Olympics.
Principles of Perseverance
No matter how talented people are, there is no success without perseverance. World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said, “I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through—then follow through.” Many people like to think things through; few follow through.
If you desire to become a talent-plus person, you need to understand some things about perseverance:
1. Perseverance Means Succeeding Because You Are Determined to, Not Destined To
Green bay Packers coach Vince Lombard! Said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of determination.” The greatest achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think they deserve it. They keep moving forward and persevering because they are determined to achieve it.
You can see this determination in successful people in every walk of life and in every age. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who fought the Romans during the Second Punic War, asserted, “We will either find a way or make one.” He lived out that attitude of perseverance when he led an unexpected campaign that took him over the Alps to defeat the Romans.
Talented people who succeed show similar determination. Joseph Lanier, one-time chairman and CEO of West Point-Pepperell, Inc., stated, “We are determined to win the battle. We will fight them until hell freezes over, and then, if we have to, we’ll fight them on the ice.” That kind of determination serves people well whether they are running an organization or pursuing a profession.
Actor Tom Hanks has been in some incredible movies of seemingly every type: comedy, suspense, action, romantic comedy, fantasy, and mystery. From Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, and Toy Story to Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, and Philadelphia, his movies have day received popular and critical acclaim. He has been called a modern day Jimmy Stewart. As of early 2006, the movies he’s appeared in have made more than $3 billion at the box office. He has also expanded his efforts into writing, directing, and producing. What actor wouldn’t want a career like his?
Looking back, one might be tempted to assume that he was so talented that he was destined to succeed. Yet it didn’t appear that way early on. When he started in his career, he couldn’t seem to get any steady work. He tried to act in commercials but couldn’t break in. He auditioned repeatedly for television shows but was constantly rejected. Finally in 1980, he landed a steady job on a sitcom called Bosom Buddies. It lasted two years and paid Hanks only $5,000 per episode. But it also earned him the opportunity to guest star on other TV shows. That exposure eventually led to his first big break, a starring role in the movie Splash.
What made the difference for Hanks? Perseverance! He never let rejection dissuade him from persevering in his career. He kept going—when he couldn’t get a part, when he couldn’t land a regular job, when the parts he was offered were mediocre. Ten years into his career, Hanks is reported to have said, “I’ve made over twenty movies and five of them are good.” Today he has made nearly fifty movies, many of them first-rate. He has won two Academy Awards. And he earns $25 million per film now! His success has nothing to do with destiny—it has to do with determination.
2. Perseverance Recognizes Life Is Not a Long Race, but Many Short Ones in Succession
Have you heard the saying, “Life is a marathon”? Whoever first said it was almost certainly trying to encourage people to keep trying when things get tough and to have a patient yet tenacious approach to life. But I think whoever said it didn’t quite get it right. Life isn’t one very long race. It’s actually a long series of shorter races, one after another. Each task has its own challenges. Each day is its own event. True, you have to get out of bed the next day and race again, but it’s never exactly the same race as before. To be successful, you just need to keep plugging away. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh observed, “In life or in football, touchdowns rarely take place in seventy-yard increments. Usually it’s three yards and a cloud of dust.”
I’ve read that explorer Christopher Columbus faced incredible difficulties while sailing west in search of a passage to Asia. He and his crews encountered storms, experienced hunger and deprivation, and dealt with extreme discouragement. The crews of the three ships were near mutiny. But Columbus persevered. The account of the journey written by Columbus said the same thing, day after day: “Today we sailed on.” And his perseverance paid off. He didn’t discover a fast route to the spice-rich Indies; instead he found new continents. But as he sailed, his focus was clear—making it through the day. Winning each short race. And that’s key. Management consultant Laddie E Hutar affirmed that “success consists of a series of little daily victories.”
3. Perseverance Is Needed to Release Most of Life’s Rewards
At a sales convention, the corporate sales manager got up in front of all two thousand of his firm’s salespeople and asked, “Did the Wright brothers ever quit?”
“No!” the sales force shouted.
“Did Charles Lindbergh ever quit?” he asked.
“No!” The salespeople shouted again.
“Did Lance Armstrong ever quit?”
“No!”
He bellowed for a fourth time, “Did Thorndike McKester ever quit?” There was a confused silence for a long moment.
Then a salesperson stood up and asked, “Who in the world is Thorndike McKester? Nobody’s ever heard of him.”
The sales manager snapped back, “Of course you never heard of him—because he quit!”
How many highly successful people do you know who gave up? How many do you know who have been richly rewarded for quitting? I don’t know any, and I bet you don’t either. It’s said that Walt Disney’s request for a loan was rejected by 301 banks before he finally got a yes. The loan he received allowed him to build Disneyland, the first and most famous theme park in history.
Inventor Thomas Edison asserted, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” It’s the last step in the race that counts the most. That is where the winner is determined. That is where the rewards come. If you run every step of the race well except the last one and you stop before the finish line, then the end result will be the same as if you never ran a step.
4. Perseverance Draws Sweetness Out of Adversity
The trials and pressures of life—and how we face them—often define us. Confronted by adversity, many people give up while others rise up. How do those who succeed do it? They persevere. They find the benefit to them personally that comes from any trial. And they recognize that the best thing about adversity is coming out on the other side of it. There is a sweetness to overcoming your troubles and finding something good in the process, however small it may be.
I came across a poem by Howard Goodman called “I Don’t Regret a Mile” that expresses this idea well. It says, in part:
I’ve dreamed many a dream that’s never come true,
I’ve seen them vanish at dawn,
But enough of my dreams have come true
To make me keep dreaming on
I’ve prayed many a prayer that seemed no answer would come,
Though I’d waited so patient and long;
But enough answers have come to my prayers
To make me keep praying on
I’ve sown many a seed that’s fallen by the wayside,
For the birds to feed upon
But I’ve held enough golden sheaves in my hands
To make me keep sowing on
I’ve trusted many a friend that’s failed me
And left me to weep alone
But enough of my friends have been true-blue
To make me keep trusting on
I’ve drained the cup of disappointment and pain,
And gone many a day without song
But I’ve sipped enough nectar from the roses of life
To make me want to live on
Giving up when adversity threatens can make a person bitter. Persevering through adversity makes one better.
5. Perseverance Has a Compounding Effect on Life
Author Napoleon Hill says, “Every successful person finds that great success lies just beyond the point when they’re convinced their idea is not going to work.” How do you get beyond that point? How do you go beyond what you believe is your limit? How do you achieve lasting success? Do the right thing, day after day. There are no shortcuts to anything worthwhile.
Every day that you do the right things—work hard, treat others with respect, learn, and grow—you invest in yourself. To do these things every day takes relentless perseverance, but if you do them, your success compounds over time. Weight-loss expert and author Judy Wardell Halliday supported this idea: “Dreams become reality when we keep our commitment to them.”
6. Perseverance Means Stopping Not Because You’re Tired but Because the Task Is Done
Former diplomat and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Robert Strauss commented, “Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired—you quit when the gorilla is tired.” If you think about it, perseverance doesn’t really come into play until you are tired. When you’re fresh, excited, and energetic, you approach a task with vigor. Work is fun. Only when you become tired do you need perseverance.
To successful people, fatigue and discouragement are not signs to quit. They perceive them as signals to draw on their reserves, rely on their character, and keep going. One problem of many people is that they underestimate what it will take to succeed. Enlightenment political philosopher Montesquieu declared, “In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.” When we haven’t counted the cost of success, we approach challenges with mere interest; what is really required is total commitment. And that makes all the difference.
7. Perseverance Doesn’t Demand More Than We Have but All That We Have
Author Frank Tyger observed, “In every triumph there is a lot of try.” But perseverance means more than trying. It means more than working hard. Perseverance is an investment. It is a willingness to bind oneself emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually to an idea or task until it has been completed. Perseverance demands a lot, but here’s the good news: everything you give is an investment in yourself.
The Five Enemies of Perseverance
French scientist Louis Pasteur said, “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lives solely in my tenacity.” Perseverance begins with the right attitude—an attitude of tenacity. But the desire to persevere alone isn’t enough to keep most people going when they are tired or discouraged. Perseverance is a trait that can be cultivated. And the initial step to developing it is to eliminate its five greatest enemies:
1. A Lifestyle of Giving Up
A little boy had been promised an ice-cream cone if he was good while accompanying his grandfather on some errands. The longer they were gone, the more difficult the boy was finding it to be good. “How much longer will it be?” the boy asked.
“Not too long,” replied the grandfather. “We’ve got just one more stop before we get ice cream.”
“I don’t know if I can make it, Grandpa,” the little boy responded. “I can be good. I just can’t be good enough long enough.”
When we were kids and we didn’t follow through on a task, people often gave us a break. That’s to be expected. Children tend to jump from one activity to another and to bounce from idea to idea. Adults can’t do that and expect to be successful. Scientists L. G. Elliott advised, “Vacillating people seldom succeed. They seldom win the solid respect of their fellows. Successful men and women are very careful in reaching decisions and very persistent and determined in action thereafter.”
If you desire to be successful and to maximize your talent, you need to be consistent and persistent. Talent without perseverance never fruition. Opportunities without persistence will be lost. There is a direct correlation between perseverance and potential. If you have a habit of giving up, you need to overcome it to be successful.
2. A Wrong Belief That Life Should Be Easy
Debra K. Johnson tells about an incident with her seven-year-old daughter who wanted to take violin lessons. When they went to a music store together to rent an instrument, Debra began lecturing her about the expense of lessons and the commitment that would be required of her if she got her the violin. “There will be times you’ll feel like giving up,” Debra said, “but I want you to hang in there and keep on trying.”
Her daughter nodded and, in her most serious voice, responded, “It will be just like marriage, right, Mom?” Having the right expectations going into anything is half the battle. John C. Norcross, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Scranton, has studied people and their goals, and he has found a characteristic that distinguishes those who reach their goals from those who don’t: expectations. Both types of people experience the same amount of failure during the first month they strive for their goals. But members of the successful group don’t expect to succeed right away, and they view their failures as a reason to recommit and a reminder to refocus on their goals with more determination. Norcross says, “Those who are unsuccessful say a relapse is evidence that they can’t do it.”
3. A Wrong Belief That Success Is a Destination
The NBA’s Pat Riley has won many championships as a basketball coach. In his book The Winner Within, he writes, “Complacency is the last hurdle any winner, any team must overcome before attaining potential greatness. Complacency is the success disease: it takes root when you’re feeling good about who you are and what you’ve achieved.” It’s ironic, but past success can be the fiercest enemy to future success.
In February 2006, I was invited to join some friends who were going to the Super Bowl on a private plane. I sat next to Lester Woerner, the owner of the plane and a very successful entrepreneur and businessman. He started investing in real estate when he was a teenager, helped build one of the finest turf grass companies in the country in his twenties and thirties, and now in his forties is the chairman of Woerner Holdings with investments in agriculture, real estate, and financial securities. Within minutes we were engaged in conversation, and one of the questions I asked him was how he maintained success after having achieved it.
Lester described a day when he came to the realization that he had “made it,” and he started to wonder what was next for him. “I started to change,” Lester explained. “I went from thinking why not about every opportunity that approached me to thinking but why when an opportunity arose. I lost the hunger.”
When Lester stopped seizing opportunities, the opportunities began drying up. And he hit a plateau.
“How did you break out of it?” I asked.
“The first thing was to recognize that I was on a plateau; the second was to close the door on yesterday’s success,” he answered. “Once I did that, I was able to take steps to change, to begin going after opportunities again.
I told Lester that I found that people tend to celebrate and then to relax when they see success as a destination.
“It’s good to celebrate and even take a rest,” Lester responded, “but not for long. We must close the door on yesterday’s success.”
If you think you have arrived, then you’re in trouble. As soon as you think you no longer need to work to make progress, you’ll begin to lose ground.
4. A Lack of Resiliency
Harvard professor of psychiatry George E. Vaillant, in his book Aging Well, identifies resiliency as a significant characteristic of people who navigate the many transitions of life from birth to old age. He writes, “Resilience reflects individuals who metaphorically resemble a twig with a fresh, green living core. When twisted out of shape, such a twig bends, but it does not break; instead it springs back and continues growing.”
That’s an excellent description of how we must be if we desire to persevere through adversity and make the most of the talent we have. We must not become dry, brittle, and inflexible. And we must endeavor to bounce back, no matter how we may feel. We would be wise to remember the words of former NBA player, coach, and executive Jerry West: “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days you feel good.”
5. A Lack of Vision
Everything that is created is actually created twice. First it is created mentally; then it is created physically. Where does that mental creation come from? The answer is vision.
People who display perseverance keep a larger vision in mind as they toil away at their craft or profession. They see in their mind’s eye what they want to create or to do, and they keep working toward it as they labor. For example, years ago I read an account of an amateur golfer who played a round with Sam Snead, member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, recipient of the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award, and three-time captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. On the first hole, Snead shot a seven—three over par, an unusually poor score for a golfer of his caliber. As the pair exited the green, Snead didn’t seem to be bothered by his triple bogey. When his amateur companion asked Snead about it, he responded, “That’s why we play eighteen holes.” Snead’s vision of the big picture helped him to maintain perspective, remain resilient, and persevere. By the end of the round, Snead finished four strokes under par.
TALENT + PERSEVERANCE = A TALENT-PLUS PERSON PUTTING THE TALENT-PLUS FORMULA INTO ACTION
Clearing away the five enemies of perseverance is a preliminary step to becoming a talent-plus person in the area of perseverance. Right thinking always precedes right action. If you want to be able to sustain your talent, then take the following steps:
Purpose: Find One
Rich De Voss, owner of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, remarked, “Persistence is stubbornness with a purpose.” It is very difficult for people to develop perseverance when they lack a sense of purpose. Conversely, when one has a passionate sense of purpose, energy rises, obstacles become incidental, and perseverance wins out.
Perhaps you’ve seen America’s Most Wanted, the television program that re-creates the crime stories and encourages viewers to help authorities locate and capture the criminals who are wanted for these often violent crimes. The program’s host is John Walsh. Many people think he is an actor or journalist—a television professional hired to host the show. But he isn’t, and his story is quite remarkable.
Walsh owned his own company, and along with three partners, he built deluxe hotels. But one day his six-year-old son, Adam, disappeared. The child had been abducted, but because there was no evidence of a crime, the authorities were slow to help Walsh and his wife find their only child. They searched for sixteen days. Tragically, by the time he was found, it was too late. He was dead.
Walsh’s life was thrown into chaos. He lost thirty pounds. His house went into foreclosure. And he lost his business—he just couldn’t bring himself to return to his work. He had lost all hope. Then one day Dr. Ronald Wright, the county coroner, looked at Walsh and asked, “You’re thinking about suicide, aren’t you?”
“What do I have to live for?” Walsh replied. “I have nothing. My only child has been murdered. I can’t even talk to my wife. I have no job, my house is in foreclosure, my whole life is over.”
“No, it isn’t,” Wright responded. “You are articulate. You mounted the greatest campaign for a missing child in the history of Florida. Go out and try to change things.”
Walsh says that it was the best advice he’d gotten from anyone. It gave him purpose. And that sense of purpose did more than give him a reason not to kill himself. It energized him to serve and help others. In 1988, he began hosting America’s Most Wanted, which he continues to do as I write this. The show has been responsible for the capture of hundreds of fugitives, including fourteen who were on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted lists.
If you want to maximize your talent as a talent-plus person, you need to find your purpose. That is the only way you will be able to persevere, as John Walsh did, even when facing the most difficult circumstance
Excuses: Eliminate Them
One of the most striking things that separates people who sustain their success from those who are only briefly or never successful is their strong sense of responsibility for their own actions. It is easier to move from failure to success than it is from excuses to success.
According to Bruce Nash, author of a series of “Hall of Shame” books on sports figures, one notorious person for making excuses was Rafael Septien, former placekicker for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. Nash writes, “We’re all guilty of using excuses. When we do, we place in the company of at sports heroes. Take Rafael Septien, for example. Rafael Septien has no peers—when it comes to making up lamebrained excuses for missed field goals.” Among the excuses, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that Septien offered:
· “I was too busy reading my stats on the scoreboard.”
· “The grass was too tall.” (Texas Stadium doesn’t even have grass; its surface is artificial turf.)
· “The 30-second clock distracted me.”
· “My helmet was too tight and it was squeezing my brain. I couldn’t think.”
· “No wonder [I missed]. You placed the ball upside down” (said to his holder).
If you want to maximize and sustain your talent, don’t allow yourself to offer excuses when you don’t perform at the best of your ability. Instead, take complete responsibility for yourself and your actions. And keep in mind the words of George Washington Carver, who said, “Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
Stamina: Develop Some
Former world heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali, called “The Greatest,” asserted, “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” All people who achieve and maintain success possess stamina. Truly, stamina is a key to perseverance, and perseverance is a key to becoming a talent-plus person.
In February 2006, I accompanied a group of leaders from two organizations, EQUIP and Lidere, on a trip to Central and South America. We traveled together by private plane. Our mission was to launch a leadership training initiative in seven countries.
The first leg of our journey was to Honduras. We were scheduled to train a group of leaders there at a conference, and part of our plan was to have leadership books available for anyone who might want to buy them. Abraham Diaz, who works with Marcos Witt at Lidere, took charge of working out the details of getting the books through customs in Guatemala and then on to Honduras, which we needed to happen in one day in order for them to make it to the conference on time the next day. Little did we know that getting those books to the conference was going to be an exercise in perseverance. Here, in Abraham’s own words, is what happened after he landed in Guatemala:
Before I left Atlanta, where we were to meet with the rest of the group, I spent two days in Houston receiving all the instructions I needed. The books were coming down in another plane, and the plan was to keep the books in the plane so that when we arrived we wouldn’t have to go through the process of importing all the material. But the company in Guatemala that we hired to bring the books in didn’t follow instructions. They said that they had turned all the books over to Customs officials. It took two and a half hours to find this out. Now they didn’t have any control of those boxes, and I had to go directly Customs to see where they were located.
2:30 p.m.—I went to Customs’ main office to find the boxes. But they couldn’t search for them. They needed me to go back to the company which brought in the books and get the documents they received when they turned over the boxes. I went back to get them, but was told I would have to wait for the person in charge of this matter.
3:00 p.m.—The person in charge arrived. He informed me that I needed to pay a fee at another location so that he could release these documents. I went to the other location and made the payment.
3:30 p.m.—I went back to the handling company and received the papers which included the airway bill number and invoice that Customs required.
4:00 p.m.—I arrived back at Customs and they started searching for the hundreds of boxes. As they reviewed their information, they realized the number of boxes that arrived was one less than the number reported in the documents, so they said they could not release them to me. To get them, I needed to provide a letter, stamped and approved by another Customs official, stating that I relinquished my right to the missing box.
4:30 p.m.—I walked to this office. I saw a man there who appeared to be important. When I started to explain my problem, he invited me into his office. It turned out he was the administrative director of Customs for all of Guatemala. He started typing the letter I needed himself. Then he got all of the signatures and stamps I needed to get the boxes out. I finally felt like I might succeed.
5:15 p.m.—I went back to the warehouse where international shipments are held. They kept me waiting for forty-five minutes while they processed other orders.
6:00 p.m.—The warehouse official said that in order for them to release the boxes, I had to make two different payments for storage and other charges. I went to the other location to make the payment, but I had only U.S. dollars with me, which they wouldn’t take. So I jumped into a cab and went to a nearby bank to exchange money.
6:30 p.m.—I returned to make the payment and waited in line for more than twenty minutes before I could pay the fees.
7:00 p.m.—I returned to the warehouse and waited for the person who would take the receipts showing I made the proper payments. After waiting forty-five minutes, he finally arrived. He looked over the papers. He couldn’t believe I had been able to do all the procedures in a few hours. He made some phone calls and looked over the papers again.
8:00 p.m.—He finally gave the okay and called the people who would operate the machinery to move the boxes to the front of the warehouse.
9:00 p.m.—I found out the workers who move the boxes in the warehouse were not the same people who would move them to the plane, so I started searching for someone who could perform this service. I waited for nearly an hour for the person in charge to show up so that I could find out how much it was going to cost and whether he had workers to do it.
10:00 p.m.—After coming to an agreement, workers started loading boxes and moving them to where the plane was. I then realized that the FBO [fixed base of operations] at this airport had no place to store the boxes overnight, so I worked it out for the people who moved them to stay with the boxes until 5:00 a.m. the next morning.
11:00 p.m.—The captain of our plane called me to let me know that his aircraft could not take all the boxes we had because of the weight. As the boxes arrived from the warehouse, I began contacting other pilots with small planes near ours to find one who was willing to take the remaining boxes to Honduras. I finally found one who was willing to do it.
The next morning, we departed and flew to Honduras—where we had to start a similar process all over again!
A lot of leaders in Honduras were very grateful for the perseverance of Abraham Diaz. Because of him, they were able to get the books they needed.
Earlier in this chapter I stated that life is not one long race but a series of many short ones in succession. Abraham Diaz’s experience is a perfect illustration of this truth. On that day in Guatemala, he ran race after race for eight and a half hours—and the official who finally gave the okay to him was amazed that he had been able to do it. The next day he ran another race. And the day after that.
Abraham is a talented leader. He demonstrates the number one characteristic of good leaders: the ability to make things happen. That takes perseverance. That’s true no matter what your talent is or what skills you possess. Without perseverance, a talented person is little more than a flash in the pan.
Daring to Dream
In July 2000, Vonetta Mowers landed in Sacramento, California, ready to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials for a place on the American team that would travel to Sydney, Australia, for the summer games. She had been training for it her whole life.
Vonetta had dreamed about being in the Olympics since she was a small child. She ran everywhere as a kid, and at age nine, when she had a chance to try out with an inner-city track club called the Alabama Striders in Birmingham, she gladly seized it. When the coach later looked over the list of times children ran in the 50-yard dash and saw that V. Jeffrey had the fastest time of all the kids in Jonesboro Elementary School, he assumed the time had come from one of the older boys. He was shocked to find out that it belonged to Vonetta—a third grade girl! Vonetta quickly became a star among the club’s runners.
An excellent athlete, Vonetta lettered in track, volleyball, and basketball in high school and was named MVP of her track team three seasons. In college she focused exclusively on track, competing in the 200 and 400-meter sprints, long jump, triple jump, heptathlon, and relays. She was named all-American seven times.
At age twenty - Six, Vonetta was competing as an elite athlete, and she was on course to make the Sydney team. She had tried out for the 1996 team at age twenty-two, competing in the 100-meter dash and long jump, but she hadn’t made it. That had been tough for her. But she had dreamed of competing in the Olympics since she was nine, so she decided to put in four more years of grueling training, delayed starting a family, and gave it one more try. “In the years after college, while I worked as an assistant track coach,” writes Flowers, “I continued my own training. I devoted countless hours to lifting weights, eating right, and staying mentally tough. I knew that my time as an athlete was coming to an end, and I’d hoped that the 2000 Olympic trials would prove to be my year to finally find out what it’s like to be an Olympian.” But despite all her hopes, all her efforts, all her talent, Vonetta’s best effort at the 2000 trials wasn’t good enough. She did not finish with a good in failure. Her Olympic dream was over.
Give Up or Go On?
But a funny thing happened while she was in Sacramento. Her husband, Johnny, saw a flyer posted in a hallway. It read,
Continue Your Olympic Dream by
Trying Out for the Bobsled Team
Ideal candidates should be able to perform the following:
30 meters
60 meters
100 meters
Five Consecutive Hops
Vertical Jump
Shot Put Toss
Please call Bonny at [number] or come to
Davidson High School track on [date] for tryouts.
Johnny was very excited about it, but Vonetta wasn’t. She knew nothing about bobsleds, she had never lived anywhere that it snowed, and she was still crestfallen about failing in the summer games trials.
Vonetta was at a crossroads. Her talent had seemed almost limitless, yet it hadn’t carried her to her dream. Now here was another opportunity. But it wasn’t in her sport. It wasn’t even in her Olympics—the summer games. And even if she succeeded in passing the “audition,” it would mean starting over again in a new sport on unfamiliar ground—ice. It would require a degree of perseverance beyond what she had already displayed.
Reluctantly Vonetta agreed to attend the tryouts. She discovered that her experience as a sprinter and triple jumper and her training with weights had prepared her well to become a bobsled brakewoman (the person who pushes the bobsled and rides with the driver). It took her two years of learning, training, and competing—along with the ability to survive the soap opera of drivers changing brakewomen multiple times—but she finally not as a track athlete in the summer games, but as a bobsledder in the wildest Olympics. And in 2002, her perseverance paid off beyond her wildest dreams. Much to everyone’s surprise, Vonetta and her driver, Jill Bakken, won the gold medal! And with that, Vonetta went into the record books as the first African-American to win a gold medal in a winter Olympics.
Principles of Perseverance
No matter how talented people are, there is no success without perseverance. World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker said, “I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through—then follow through.” Many people like to think things through; few follow through.
If you desire to become a talent-plus person, you need to understand some things about perseverance:
1. Perseverance Means Succeeding Because You Are Determined to, Not Destined To
Green bay Packers coach Vince Lombard! Said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of determination.” The greatest achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think they deserve it. They keep moving forward and persevering because they are determined to achieve it.
You can see this determination in successful people in every walk of life and in every age. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who fought the Romans during the Second Punic War, asserted, “We will either find a way or make one.” He lived out that attitude of perseverance when he led an unexpected campaign that took him over the Alps to defeat the Romans.
Talented people who succeed show similar determination. Joseph Lanier, one-time chairman and CEO of West Point-Pepperell, Inc., stated, “We are determined to win the battle. We will fight them until hell freezes over, and then, if we have to, we’ll fight them on the ice.” That kind of determination serves people well whether they are running an organization or pursuing a profession.
Actor Tom Hanks has been in some incredible movies of seemingly every type: comedy, suspense, action, romantic comedy, fantasy, and mystery. From Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, and Toy Story to Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, and Philadelphia, his movies have day received popular and critical acclaim. He has been called a modern day Jimmy Stewart. As of early 2006, the movies he’s appeared in have made more than $3 billion at the box office. He has also expanded his efforts into writing, directing, and producing. What actor wouldn’t want a career like his?
Looking back, one might be tempted to assume that he was so talented that he was destined to succeed. Yet it didn’t appear that way early on. When he started in his career, he couldn’t seem to get any steady work. He tried to act in commercials but couldn’t break in. He auditioned repeatedly for television shows but was constantly rejected. Finally in 1980, he landed a steady job on a sitcom called Bosom Buddies. It lasted two years and paid Hanks only $5,000 per episode. But it also earned him the opportunity to guest star on other TV shows. That exposure eventually led to his first big break, a starring role in the movie Splash.
What made the difference for Hanks? Perseverance! He never let rejection dissuade him from persevering in his career. He kept going—when he couldn’t get a part, when he couldn’t land a regular job, when the parts he was offered were mediocre. Ten years into his career, Hanks is reported to have said, “I’ve made over twenty movies and five of them are good.” Today he has made nearly fifty movies, many of them first-rate. He has won two Academy Awards. And he earns $25 million per film now! His success has nothing to do with destiny—it has to do with determination.
2. Perseverance Recognizes Life Is Not a Long Race, but Many Short Ones in Succession
Have you heard the saying, “Life is a marathon”? Whoever first said it was almost certainly trying to encourage people to keep trying when things get tough and to have a patient yet tenacious approach to life. But I think whoever said it didn’t quite get it right. Life isn’t one very long race. It’s actually a long series of shorter races, one after another. Each task has its own challenges. Each day is its own event. True, you have to get out of bed the next day and race again, but it’s never exactly the same race as before. To be successful, you just need to keep plugging away. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh observed, “In life or in football, touchdowns rarely take place in seventy-yard increments. Usually it’s three yards and a cloud of dust.”
I’ve read that explorer Christopher Columbus faced incredible difficulties while sailing west in search of a passage to Asia. He and his crews encountered storms, experienced hunger and deprivation, and dealt with extreme discouragement. The crews of the three ships were near mutiny. But Columbus persevered. The account of the journey written by Columbus said the same thing, day after day: “Today we sailed on.” And his perseverance paid off. He didn’t discover a fast route to the spice-rich Indies; instead he found new continents. But as he sailed, his focus was clear—making it through the day. Winning each short race. And that’s key. Management consultant Laddie E Hutar affirmed that “success consists of a series of little daily victories.”
3. Perseverance Is Needed to Release Most of Life’s Rewards
At a sales convention, the corporate sales manager got up in front of all two thousand of his firm’s salespeople and asked, “Did the Wright brothers ever quit?”
“No!” the sales force shouted.
“Did Charles Lindbergh ever quit?” he asked.
“No!” The salespeople shouted again.
“Did Lance Armstrong ever quit?”
“No!”
He bellowed for a fourth time, “Did Thorndike McKester ever quit?” There was a confused silence for a long moment.
Then a salesperson stood up and asked, “Who in the world is Thorndike McKester? Nobody’s ever heard of him.”
The sales manager snapped back, “Of course you never heard of him—because he quit!”
How many highly successful people do you know who gave up? How many do you know who have been richly rewarded for quitting? I don’t know any, and I bet you don’t either. It’s said that Walt Disney’s request for a loan was rejected by 301 banks before he finally got a yes. The loan he received allowed him to build Disneyland, the first and most famous theme park in history.
Inventor Thomas Edison asserted, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” It’s the last step in the race that counts the most. That is where the winner is determined. That is where the rewards come. If you run every step of the race well except the last one and you stop before the finish line, then the end result will be the same as if you never ran a step.
4. Perseverance Draws Sweetness Out of Adversity
The trials and pressures of life—and how we face them—often define us. Confronted by adversity, many people give up while others rise up. How do those who succeed do it? They persevere. They find the benefit to them personally that comes from any trial. And they recognize that the best thing about adversity is coming out on the other side of it. There is a sweetness to overcoming your troubles and finding something good in the process, however small it may be.
I came across a poem by Howard Goodman called “I Don’t Regret a Mile” that expresses this idea well. It says, in part:
I’ve dreamed many a dream that’s never come true,
I’ve seen them vanish at dawn,
But enough of my dreams have come true
To make me keep dreaming on
I’ve prayed many a prayer that seemed no answer would come,
Though I’d waited so patient and long;
But enough answers have come to my prayers
To make me keep praying on
I’ve sown many a seed that’s fallen by the wayside,
For the birds to feed upon
But I’ve held enough golden sheaves in my hands
To make me keep sowing on
I’ve trusted many a friend that’s failed me
And left me to weep alone
But enough of my friends have been true-blue
To make me keep trusting on
I’ve drained the cup of disappointment and pain,
And gone many a day without song
But I’ve sipped enough nectar from the roses of life
To make me want to live on
Giving up when adversity threatens can make a person bitter. Persevering through adversity makes one better.
5. Perseverance Has a Compounding Effect on Life
Author Napoleon Hill says, “Every successful person finds that great success lies just beyond the point when they’re convinced their idea is not going to work.” How do you get beyond that point? How do you go beyond what you believe is your limit? How do you achieve lasting success? Do the right thing, day after day. There are no shortcuts to anything worthwhile.
Every day that you do the right things—work hard, treat others with respect, learn, and grow—you invest in yourself. To do these things every day takes relentless perseverance, but if you do them, your success compounds over time. Weight-loss expert and author Judy Wardell Halliday supported this idea: “Dreams become reality when we keep our commitment to them.”
6. Perseverance Means Stopping Not Because You’re Tired but Because the Task Is Done
Former diplomat and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Robert Strauss commented, “Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired—you quit when the gorilla is tired.” If you think about it, perseverance doesn’t really come into play until you are tired. When you’re fresh, excited, and energetic, you approach a task with vigor. Work is fun. Only when you become tired do you need perseverance.
To successful people, fatigue and discouragement are not signs to quit. They perceive them as signals to draw on their reserves, rely on their character, and keep going. One problem of many people is that they underestimate what it will take to succeed. Enlightenment political philosopher Montesquieu declared, “In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.” When we haven’t counted the cost of success, we approach challenges with mere interest; what is really required is total commitment. And that makes all the difference.
7. Perseverance Doesn’t Demand More Than We Have but All That We Have
Author Frank Tyger observed, “In every triumph there is a lot of try.” But perseverance means more than trying. It means more than working hard. Perseverance is an investment. It is a willingness to bind oneself emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually to an idea or task until it has been completed. Perseverance demands a lot, but here’s the good news: everything you give is an investment in yourself.
The Five Enemies of Perseverance
French scientist Louis Pasteur said, “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lives solely in my tenacity.” Perseverance begins with the right attitude—an attitude of tenacity. But the desire to persevere alone isn’t enough to keep most people going when they are tired or discouraged. Perseverance is a trait that can be cultivated. And the initial step to developing it is to eliminate its five greatest enemies:
1. A Lifestyle of Giving Up
A little boy had been promised an ice-cream cone if he was good while accompanying his grandfather on some errands. The longer they were gone, the more difficult the boy was finding it to be good. “How much longer will it be?” the boy asked.
“Not too long,” replied the grandfather. “We’ve got just one more stop before we get ice cream.”
“I don’t know if I can make it, Grandpa,” the little boy responded. “I can be good. I just can’t be good enough long enough.”
When we were kids and we didn’t follow through on a task, people often gave us a break. That’s to be expected. Children tend to jump from one activity to another and to bounce from idea to idea. Adults can’t do that and expect to be successful. Scientists L. G. Elliott advised, “Vacillating people seldom succeed. They seldom win the solid respect of their fellows. Successful men and women are very careful in reaching decisions and very persistent and determined in action thereafter.”
If you desire to be successful and to maximize your talent, you need to be consistent and persistent. Talent without perseverance never fruition. Opportunities without persistence will be lost. There is a direct correlation between perseverance and potential. If you have a habit of giving up, you need to overcome it to be successful.
2. A Wrong Belief That Life Should Be Easy
Debra K. Johnson tells about an incident with her seven-year-old daughter who wanted to take violin lessons. When they went to a music store together to rent an instrument, Debra began lecturing her about the expense of lessons and the commitment that would be required of her if she got her the violin. “There will be times you’ll feel like giving up,” Debra said, “but I want you to hang in there and keep on trying.”
Her daughter nodded and, in her most serious voice, responded, “It will be just like marriage, right, Mom?” Having the right expectations going into anything is half the battle. John C. Norcross, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Scranton, has studied people and their goals, and he has found a characteristic that distinguishes those who reach their goals from those who don’t: expectations. Both types of people experience the same amount of failure during the first month they strive for their goals. But members of the successful group don’t expect to succeed right away, and they view their failures as a reason to recommit and a reminder to refocus on their goals with more determination. Norcross says, “Those who are unsuccessful say a relapse is evidence that they can’t do it.”
3. A Wrong Belief That Success Is a Destination
The NBA’s Pat Riley has won many championships as a basketball coach. In his book The Winner Within, he writes, “Complacency is the last hurdle any winner, any team must overcome before attaining potential greatness. Complacency is the success disease: it takes root when you’re feeling good about who you are and what you’ve achieved.” It’s ironic, but past success can be the fiercest enemy to future success.
In February 2006, I was invited to join some friends who were going to the Super Bowl on a private plane. I sat next to Lester Woerner, the owner of the plane and a very successful entrepreneur and businessman. He started investing in real estate when he was a teenager, helped build one of the finest turf grass companies in the country in his twenties and thirties, and now in his forties is the chairman of Woerner Holdings with investments in agriculture, real estate, and financial securities. Within minutes we were engaged in conversation, and one of the questions I asked him was how he maintained success after having achieved it.
Lester described a day when he came to the realization that he had “made it,” and he started to wonder what was next for him. “I started to change,” Lester explained. “I went from thinking why not about every opportunity that approached me to thinking but why when an opportunity arose. I lost the hunger.”
When Lester stopped seizing opportunities, the opportunities began drying up. And he hit a plateau.
“How did you break out of it?” I asked.
“The first thing was to recognize that I was on a plateau; the second was to close the door on yesterday’s success,” he answered. “Once I did that, I was able to take steps to change, to begin going after opportunities again.
I told Lester that I found that people tend to celebrate and then to relax when they see success as a destination.
“It’s good to celebrate and even take a rest,” Lester responded, “but not for long. We must close the door on yesterday’s success.”
If you think you have arrived, then you’re in trouble. As soon as you think you no longer need to work to make progress, you’ll begin to lose ground.
4. A Lack of Resiliency
Harvard professor of psychiatry George E. Vaillant, in his book Aging Well, identifies resiliency as a significant characteristic of people who navigate the many transitions of life from birth to old age. He writes, “Resilience reflects individuals who metaphorically resemble a twig with a fresh, green living core. When twisted out of shape, such a twig bends, but it does not break; instead it springs back and continues growing.”
That’s an excellent description of how we must be if we desire to persevere through adversity and make the most of the talent we have. We must not become dry, brittle, and inflexible. And we must endeavor to bounce back, no matter how we may feel. We would be wise to remember the words of former NBA player, coach, and executive Jerry West: “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days you feel good.”
5. A Lack of Vision
Everything that is created is actually created twice. First it is created mentally; then it is created physically. Where does that mental creation come from? The answer is vision.
People who display perseverance keep a larger vision in mind as they toil away at their craft or profession. They see in their mind’s eye what they want to create or to do, and they keep working toward it as they labor. For example, years ago I read an account of an amateur golfer who played a round with Sam Snead, member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, recipient of the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award, and three-time captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. On the first hole, Snead shot a seven—three over par, an unusually poor score for a golfer of his caliber. As the pair exited the green, Snead didn’t seem to be bothered by his triple bogey. When his amateur companion asked Snead about it, he responded, “That’s why we play eighteen holes.” Snead’s vision of the big picture helped him to maintain perspective, remain resilient, and persevere. By the end of the round, Snead finished four strokes under par.
TALENT + PERSEVERANCE = A TALENT-PLUS PERSON PUTTING THE TALENT-PLUS FORMULA INTO ACTION
Clearing away the five enemies of perseverance is a preliminary step to becoming a talent-plus person in the area of perseverance. Right thinking always precedes right action. If you want to be able to sustain your talent, then take the following steps:
Purpose: Find One
Rich De Voss, owner of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, remarked, “Persistence is stubbornness with a purpose.” It is very difficult for people to develop perseverance when they lack a sense of purpose. Conversely, when one has a passionate sense of purpose, energy rises, obstacles become incidental, and perseverance wins out.
Perhaps you’ve seen America’s Most Wanted, the television program that re-creates the crime stories and encourages viewers to help authorities locate and capture the criminals who are wanted for these often violent crimes. The program’s host is John Walsh. Many people think he is an actor or journalist—a television professional hired to host the show. But he isn’t, and his story is quite remarkable.
Walsh owned his own company, and along with three partners, he built deluxe hotels. But one day his six-year-old son, Adam, disappeared. The child had been abducted, but because there was no evidence of a crime, the authorities were slow to help Walsh and his wife find their only child. They searched for sixteen days. Tragically, by the time he was found, it was too late. He was dead.
Walsh’s life was thrown into chaos. He lost thirty pounds. His house went into foreclosure. And he lost his business—he just couldn’t bring himself to return to his work. He had lost all hope. Then one day Dr. Ronald Wright, the county coroner, looked at Walsh and asked, “You’re thinking about suicide, aren’t you?”
“What do I have to live for?” Walsh replied. “I have nothing. My only child has been murdered. I can’t even talk to my wife. I have no job, my house is in foreclosure, my whole life is over.”
“No, it isn’t,” Wright responded. “You are articulate. You mounted the greatest campaign for a missing child in the history of Florida. Go out and try to change things.”
Walsh says that it was the best advice he’d gotten from anyone. It gave him purpose. And that sense of purpose did more than give him a reason not to kill himself. It energized him to serve and help others. In 1988, he began hosting America’s Most Wanted, which he continues to do as I write this. The show has been responsible for the capture of hundreds of fugitives, including fourteen who were on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted lists.
If you want to maximize your talent as a talent-plus person, you need to find your purpose. That is the only way you will be able to persevere, as John Walsh did, even when facing the most difficult circumstance
Excuses: Eliminate Them
One of the most striking things that separates people who sustain their success from those who are only briefly or never successful is their strong sense of responsibility for their own actions. It is easier to move from failure to success than it is from excuses to success.
According to Bruce Nash, author of a series of “Hall of Shame” books on sports figures, one notorious person for making excuses was Rafael Septien, former placekicker for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. Nash writes, “We’re all guilty of using excuses. When we do, we place in the company of at sports heroes. Take Rafael Septien, for example. Rafael Septien has no peers—when it comes to making up lamebrained excuses for missed field goals.” Among the excuses, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that Septien offered:
· “I was too busy reading my stats on the scoreboard.”
· “The grass was too tall.” (Texas Stadium doesn’t even have grass; its surface is artificial turf.)
· “The 30-second clock distracted me.”
· “My helmet was too tight and it was squeezing my brain. I couldn’t think.”
· “No wonder [I missed]. You placed the ball upside down” (said to his holder).
If you want to maximize and sustain your talent, don’t allow yourself to offer excuses when you don’t perform at the best of your ability. Instead, take complete responsibility for yourself and your actions. And keep in mind the words of George Washington Carver, who said, “Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”
Stamina: Develop Some
Former world heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali, called “The Greatest,” asserted, “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” All people who achieve and maintain success possess stamina. Truly, stamina is a key to perseverance, and perseverance is a key to becoming a talent-plus person.
In February 2006, I accompanied a group of leaders from two organizations, EQUIP and Lidere, on a trip to Central and South America. We traveled together by private plane. Our mission was to launch a leadership training initiative in seven countries.
The first leg of our journey was to Honduras. We were scheduled to train a group of leaders there at a conference, and part of our plan was to have leadership books available for anyone who might want to buy them. Abraham Diaz, who works with Marcos Witt at Lidere, took charge of working out the details of getting the books through customs in Guatemala and then on to Honduras, which we needed to happen in one day in order for them to make it to the conference on time the next day. Little did we know that getting those books to the conference was going to be an exercise in perseverance. Here, in Abraham’s own words, is what happened after he landed in Guatemala:
Before I left Atlanta, where we were to meet with the rest of the group, I spent two days in Houston receiving all the instructions I needed. The books were coming down in another plane, and the plan was to keep the books in the plane so that when we arrived we wouldn’t have to go through the process of importing all the material. But the company in Guatemala that we hired to bring the books in didn’t follow instructions. They said that they had turned all the books over to Customs officials. It took two and a half hours to find this out. Now they didn’t have any control of those boxes, and I had to go directly Customs to see where they were located.
2:30 p.m.—I went to Customs’ main office to find the boxes. But they couldn’t search for them. They needed me to go back to the company which brought in the books and get the documents they received when they turned over the boxes. I went back to get them, but was told I would have to wait for the person in charge of this matter.
3:00 p.m.—The person in charge arrived. He informed me that I needed to pay a fee at another location so that he could release these documents. I went to the other location and made the payment.
3:30 p.m.—I went back to the handling company and received the papers which included the airway bill number and invoice that Customs required.
4:00 p.m.—I arrived back at Customs and they started searching for the hundreds of boxes. As they reviewed their information, they realized the number of boxes that arrived was one less than the number reported in the documents, so they said they could not release them to me. To get them, I needed to provide a letter, stamped and approved by another Customs official, stating that I relinquished my right to the missing box.
4:30 p.m.—I walked to this office. I saw a man there who appeared to be important. When I started to explain my problem, he invited me into his office. It turned out he was the administrative director of Customs for all of Guatemala. He started typing the letter I needed himself. Then he got all of the signatures and stamps I needed to get the boxes out. I finally felt like I might succeed.
5:15 p.m.—I went back to the warehouse where international shipments are held. They kept me waiting for forty-five minutes while they processed other orders.
6:00 p.m.—The warehouse official said that in order for them to release the boxes, I had to make two different payments for storage and other charges. I went to the other location to make the payment, but I had only U.S. dollars with me, which they wouldn’t take. So I jumped into a cab and went to a nearby bank to exchange money.
6:30 p.m.—I returned to make the payment and waited in line for more than twenty minutes before I could pay the fees.
7:00 p.m.—I returned to the warehouse and waited for the person who would take the receipts showing I made the proper payments. After waiting forty-five minutes, he finally arrived. He looked over the papers. He couldn’t believe I had been able to do all the procedures in a few hours. He made some phone calls and looked over the papers again.
8:00 p.m.—He finally gave the okay and called the people who would operate the machinery to move the boxes to the front of the warehouse.
9:00 p.m.—I found out the workers who move the boxes in the warehouse were not the same people who would move them to the plane, so I started searching for someone who could perform this service. I waited for nearly an hour for the person in charge to show up so that I could find out how much it was going to cost and whether he had workers to do it.
10:00 p.m.—After coming to an agreement, workers started loading boxes and moving them to where the plane was. I then realized that the FBO [fixed base of operations] at this airport had no place to store the boxes overnight, so I worked it out for the people who moved them to stay with the boxes until 5:00 a.m. the next morning.
11:00 p.m.—The captain of our plane called me to let me know that his aircraft could not take all the boxes we had because of the weight. As the boxes arrived from the warehouse, I began contacting other pilots with small planes near ours to find one who was willing to take the remaining boxes to Honduras. I finally found one who was willing to do it.
The next morning, we departed and flew to Honduras—where we had to start a similar process all over again!
A lot of leaders in Honduras were very grateful for the perseverance of Abraham Diaz. Because of him, they were able to get the books they needed.
Earlier in this chapter I stated that life is not one long race but a series of many short ones in succession. Abraham Diaz’s experience is a perfect illustration of this truth. On that day in Guatemala, he ran race after race for eight and a half hours—and the official who finally gave the okay to him was amazed that he had been able to do it. The next day he ran another race. And the day after that.
Abraham is a talented leader. He demonstrates the number one characteristic of good leaders: the ability to make things happen. That takes perseverance. That’s true no matter what your talent is or what skills you possess. Without perseverance, a talented person is little more than a flash in the pan.
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