“Resolve To Never Give Up”

Robert Warlow

Small Business Success

One quality that most budding entrepreneurs find they need very early on in their business career is persistence – that stubborn streak and the resolve never to give up. But developing the habit of persistence is tough. After so many rejections, so many failed ideas, so many days when nothing seems to go right, the temptation to pack it all in and move onto something else can be overwhelming.

That prolific inventor Thomas Edison said, “All I can do is try everything to prove my idea is right and only give up when I am sure it won’t work.” This is the guy who tried 3,000 different ways to develop a light bulb. Now that’s what I call being persistent!

What can you do to make sure you don’t give up until you are 100% sure that it won’t work? Here are some ideas.

Have a Goal

I have talked before about having a clear goal or vision. Knowing what your end result is, why you are doing what you are doing, can be a powerful tool to cultivate persistence. Having a vivid picture in your mind of what you are setting out to achieve can keep you going during the dark days - remember the saying that it’s always darkest just before the dawn. Wouldn’t it be sad to think that you may have given up when success was just around the corner?

So, if you find yourself on the point of giving up, close our eyes, visualise your goal or the reason why you started, and dig deep for the persistence to carry on.

Develop a Road Map

It’s all very well knowing where you want to go, but if you are entering unknown territory you need a road map or a plan. For your first year, write down all the steps you will need to take. Lack of persistence kicks in when you don’t know which way to turn, it’s easier to turn around and go home. Having a plan mapped out before you start will give you the edge to carry on with your journey. A plan is a commitment you have made with yourself and can be a great tool to spur you on.

Going blindly into your new venture can seem a hugely daunting task but a plan ‘chunks’ down all the steps you need to take. A plan with smaller steps is harder to give up on than one plan which outlines the end goal. Each small step accomplished is a motivator to carry on to the next one.

Avoid Interruptions

Once you are into your plan, resolve with yourself to avoid all interruptions. Create habits for your working day – only take a break at a set time and duration; don’t stop what you are doing to start something else, focus on the task in hand; start the habit of limiting your phone conversations to purely business talk. If you find cold calling a problem, create the habit of making one call at 11 o’clock every day; you’ll soon you have it cracked.

Be Creative

One of the main reasons we give up is we think there is no other way to achieve our goal. But be creative! Before giving up, be like Edison, is there version 2,599 you can try first? If you have hit ‘the wall’, take time out of the business and go somewhere you can think in peace. Not only is this time-out likely to re-motivate you but you may get that much needed flash of inspiration. So before giving up, resolve to adjust your plan and find another way.

Don’t Listen to Them

One devastating destroyer of persistence are the ‘doubters’ in your life, the ones who are quick to say, “It will never work”, or “I don’t know why you bother”. These negative-thinking people can rob you of your persistence, so avoid them or block them out of your mind as soon as they come with 3 feet of you!

If you haven’t been able to move away quick enough just picture them as the non-achievers they are, nod sagely at their comments and move on, laughing to yourself at how little they know!

A strange thing about persistence is that you can only develop the skill when times are tough. You can’t practice the art of persistence when everything is going well, so I hope it’s one skill you won’t have to get down to a fine art!

© Robert Warlow

Small Business Success

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