Practice Persistence

This next article is part of an ongoing series here at TSB Magazine called The Success Principles. The series is based on the 64 principles laid out by Jack Canfield in his course of the same name. If you're new, I always suggest starting any series from the beginning.

Principle 22:Practice Persistence

Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success.? They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from the winning touchdown.? –Ross Perot

This weekend at in Los Angeles at Love Systems Super Conference, Mike and I asked a dozen of the top dating coaches and some of the most successful pickup artists on the planet “what is the secret of your success?” We’ll be releasing footage of these interviews soon… but the answer that I can promise you will hear most often is “PERSISTENCE.”

Persistence is a common quality shared by pretty much every high achiever.? Success rarely comes easy.And it hardly ever comes quick. But sometimes the best move you can make towards achieving it is just hanging in there a little bit longer.

It’s hardly ever easy.

The pickup artists that I spoke to this weekend had all basically told me that they weren’t much better then the 8 contestants on Vh1’s The Pickup Artist when they first got into the game. Like most people, they began their education and journey with the highest energy, motivation, and optimism. And like most people they hit the bump in the road called the long endless plateau.? This long endless plateau is what weeds out the week. This is that long stretch of time in which things seem to be at a stand still, you’re seeing no progress, and you begin wondering if the journey is worth continuing.? It is at this point, most men put their dreams of becoming a pickup artist to rest.

And when asked “whats the secret of your success?” almost all of the PUAs interviewed stated that the persistence is took to stick with it through the endless plateau is what separates them from the countless other guys who started out in the same exact spot as them.

Canfield states:

Sometimes you are going to have to persist in the face of obstacles-unseen obstacles-that no amount of planning or forethough could have predicted. Sometimes, you’ll encounter what seems like overwhelming odds. And sometimes, the universe will test your commitment to the goal you’re pursuing.The going may be hard, requiring you to refuse to give up while you learn new lessons, develop new parts of yourself, and make difficult decisions.

Consider these modern examples of persistence in action:

• Red Sox fans endured the longest drought in MLB history before watching their team finally win a world series in 2004… and then another in 2007.
• Extramask (Barry Kirkey) took 26 years before he lost his virginity…
• Martin Scorsese was nominated and lost a bid for an Oscar 5 times before winning with The Departed
• Founder of KFC Colonel Sanders was told “no”1009 times before selling his first piece of chicken

Here is a fact of life… there will always be the few people who seem to have “overnight” success, but for the majority, it is the persistence that keeps them going when most others quit that leads them to their success.