Sunday, May 29, 2011

Talent is nothing without persistence

I read a lot of stuff about self-development; books, articles etc… I even go on Youtube every now and then to see video-clips about how to become a better, stronger, more efficient and more successful person. The last books Ive read is ¨The secret of Success in selling¨, ¨Think yourself to success¨ and a couple of short-books both by best seller Paul Arden, ¨Whatever you think, think the opposite¨ and ¨Its not how good you are, its how good you want to be¨. They are all very fascinating and most of them say the same thing; dear to be different, dear to fail and most of all persistence will take you there. I like that! I especially like it because we are having/had a rough time dealing with our company http://theinfidelityinspectors.vpweb.no/Home.html
We have so many processes going on, so many licenses to work through and see out and for a short time we even had the government wanting to get rid of us, but luckily they gave up when they realized we were playing by their rules. They actually apologized for their behavior and explained that unfortunately companies like mine are dealt with as part of the spy-industry and not part of the private-investigation industry. I still don’t understand what that means, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Although one problem is out of the way, it seems like the list of ¨problems/hinders¨ are getting longer for each day we are growing. Strange, huh? You would think that with more experience, expansion and knowledge more control would come by itself. Think again.
I remember when we started out a year ago we didn’t have any problems, but a long list of doings, and gradually the doings became hinders which we had to tear down one by one. I really cant decide whether to call it problems or hinders as you can see from what I have just written, but from all the self-development books my mind has no choice other than to think that it is hinders that will go away/be removed with enough persistence and determination. That’s really what we have done so far anyway, and it works. What doesn’t work is giving up. If you aim high enough you will naturally meet more resistance, so this must be healthy? Yes? I mean, if we didn’t aim as high as we do there wouldn’t have been so many hinders, right?

This has been a real challenge to me and still is; holding out, hanging in, keeping faith even when it looks like its only going one way and finding motivation. Not because the challenge is a challenge, but because of how I am as a person. I play to win and when I don’t I suffer big time. I do have patience, but running this company wants so much more than my patience. It wants me even when I sleep. In fact during the interview process for the new daytime job the last manager to interview me warned me about my number 1. Attitude. He actually said ¨I don’t doubt that you are the right candidate; I’m just worried you will have a hard time if things don’t go your way¨. I promised to be aware of it, and I am. I made this promise to my partner in my own company a year ago, and it works, but boy it drains me for energy! Talent is nothing without persistence…also in bad in times. So even if I can make fast results in periods, it’s worthless without persistence. That’s no joke… Hard work might sound a bit old fashion during this era of ¨10 ways to work smarter¨, but I’m convinced hard work is essential to be successful.