Persistence Pays!
“Courage does not always roar… Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day, saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow’.”
Anonymous
The one single thing that can make or break any business is persistence – or lack of it! Persistence is what makes us dive into our work again and again, despite difficult days, clients, situations, or challenges. Persistent business owners succeed far more often than they fail. It’s even more effective than brains, talent, or financial backing. Persistence is the one thing that ANYONE can apply to their business – it’s free, it does not require that you take a training course, and it’s not rocket science. It’s just something that anyone can do…if they want something bad enough!
Here’s my example:
When I discovered Virtual Assistance, I knew it was my dream come true! This was the answer to how I could take the administrative and business skills I already had honed, and put them together into a business of my own. I immediately applied to AssistU (the premiere VA training program in the world – at that time, the ONLY VA training program in the world!) and eagerly awaited their reply. And they said…NO. Really. They turned me down! They were not accepting Canadian students, so I was not getting in.
So where does the persistence come in? Well, I didn’t accept their answer. I asked them to partner with me to create a training program for Canada, and if they really were not interested in training Canadian VAs, then I would figure it out on my own and set up my business anyway. They agreed to take me into their training program, and in return I gave them Canadian content – which turned out to be quite useful for those US-based VAs who were working with Canadian clients!
That’s not my only example. When I was working in a corporate job, a layoff loomed. My name was on “the list”. As the messenger explained all my options and the resources that the company was offering to us newly unemployed people, I asked who was going to be helping with typing resumes and other admin work. They did not have someone lined up yet, so I offered. Well, why not? It wasn’t like I didn’t know how to interpret the handwriting of these people already – and really, what else did I have to do? My offer stopped him cold – he had no idea how to deal with this kind of a response to the news that I was laid off! My offer was not accepted, but I guess sometimes persistence doesn’t always get you the “win” you think you want. What it did give me was optimism and enthusiasm not to give in at the first setback, and to realize that this layoff was a huge opportunity – they had paid me to leave, which is what funded my dream of becoming a business owner.
How did you use persistence to get what you wanted? How did it work out?