Friday, November 12, 2010

PERTINACITY

How is your follow-through? Do you have staying power?

In Og Mandino’s classic The Greatest Salesman in the World, he addresses this in The Scroll Marked Three. It states: “I will persist until I succeed.”

Every business and success minded guru that I read address this topic at some point in time. Our successes in life often come down to our staying power.

When I took typing in the tenth and eleventh grade my typing teacher taught me a great word.

The word was “PERTINACITY”.

It means “stick-to-it-ivness.“

For those of us in sales, we soon learn that often we have to ask for the sale somewhere between 3 and 5 times before we get the order. That, my friends is pertinacity.

There are dozens, hundreds, and thousands of examples in our world of people who have demonstrated this kind of focus. Thomas Edison comes to mind. He tried over ten-thousand different combinations for the electric light bulb before he found the perfect solution. He was asked by Napoleon Hill once what he would have done if he had not finally uncovered the secret.

His response was this. “I would be in my laboratory working now, instead of wasting my time talking with you.” Wow. That is focus and desire all mixed together. And a huge dose of pertinacity mixed in for good measure.

Read most biographies and you’ll see this inner core-principle in place. Athletes have it.  So do politicians and ministers.  Countless successful businesses demonstrate pertinacity.

I am a huge fan of Napoleon Hill. In a book published by his foundation titled A Year of Growing Rich, he states, “I have observed two of the most important facts concerning men and women who are successful in their chosen occupations and those who are not. The successes speak in the future tense of yet unattained objectives which they intend to achieve. The failures speak in the past tense of their defeats and disappointments.”

I referenced Og Mandino’s book at the beginning of this blog. One of the suggestions he makes for mastering the ten scrolls in The Greatest Salesman is to take each scroll and read it three times a day for 30 days. Then move on to the next scroll. Wow. What a huge commitment but what a marvelous demonstration of PERTINACITY. If you can stick to this commitment, you show a lot of the qualities that will lead you on to other successes.

I love this line from Beauty and the Beast. “Screw your courage to the sticking place.”

Develop Resolve!
Persevere!
Stick to it!

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