Calvin Coolidge is probably the most-oft quoted president of the United States from a marketing standpoint. He is famous for the aphorism, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
Persistence finds a special place in companies not only as part of training and motivation of their respective marketing divisions, but as a way to measure client patronage of their products. Insurance companies, for example, include in their sales training the importance of persistence in a market that is generally cold to insurance. The other uses of persistence in the insurance business can be best described in terms of the percentage of active policies resulting to the continued payment of premiums by their clients or what they call “persistency ratio, persistency rate†and so forth.
Google dictionary defines persistence as a "Firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition." I have a special bias for this definition not only for its application from the marketing sense, but also in everyday use.
For some people, persistence and determination are interchangeably used to mean one's grit and resolve to achieve a goal or purpose. I slightly differ in the way they are used from the practical sense. To say that you are determined means the intent to pursue your goals while to say that you're persistent means the action being put to achieve those goals. In other words, persistence is the translation of determination in concrete form or simply put it, it is "determination in action." Persistence is not the burning desire, that's determination. Persistence is the fire itself that cooks the meal you've always wanted and deserve.
What makes persistence so valuable is that, it brings out the resourcefulness and problem-solving quality in people. A marketer, as a common example, may have trouble getting an appointment with the man in charge. He has to go through a haughty secretary and all before he gets to talk to the boss. A persistent marketer waits for the right time to catch the boss at the elevator to make his killer elevator pitch. Thus, the persistent is not fettered by what gets in the way. He makes sure to have his way. He is the type who wants to be on top of the situation in any given situation. A persistent person is therefore an achiever.
Persistence is innate in all of us. It is the character of winners. The fact that you are here – living, breathing, and existing, is persistence in action. You were born because of your persistence. You are that one sperm, of the hundreds of millions, that struggled to be conceived and born. You are, therefore, your own creation the moment you decided to get into the race to be born.
While innate, we lose our sense of persistence when we allow ourselves to be affected by events and situations that challenge our comfort zones. I would like to think that this has something to do with the way we were raised. Parents have the tendency to be overprotective, and too consenting to the whims of their children that the latter think that the challenges of this world can be taken lightly. Rarely do parents refuse the wishes of their children for fear that they would be hated back. We are so doting to the point that we go as far as taking care of our children’s homework just to unload them of their discomfort. I am of the opinion that it is better for our children to allow them to experience the discomforts early in life so that they get used to them and be able face them with tenacity when they are on their own.
Persistence is honed by the amount of adversity that we go through. It is up to us whether to face those adversities or to remain fearful of them and run away. By facing your adversities, you choose to persist in front of them, and in the midst of them – and by doing so, you choose to rise above them. Persistence defines our future not only as entrepreneurs but as persons. It is by persistence that you become the captain of your destiny, and the master of your fate.
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