Persistence!! It is the great equalizer for all of those reaching for success. It overcomes lack of education, money, talent, intelligence, looks and all other seeming advantages. President Calvin Coolidge said nothing could take its place.
“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
I cannot think of one victory I’ve ever had that I won without persistence. For a while I just thought that I had to work harder and longer than anyone else in order to achieve because nothing has ever come easy for me. Then I really looked around and noticed that everyone else was just like me. Every mentor I’ve ever had and every successful person I’ve ever known has their own story of how persistence was the key to their success.
One of the greatest Universal Laws is called the Law of Gender: “This law decrees that all seeds (ideas are spiritual seeds) have a gestation or incubation period before they manifest. In other words, when you choose a goal or build the image in your mind, a definite period of time must elapse before that image manifests in physical results.”
Knowing the basics of farmers I certainly understand the gestation of a seed. In fact, one of my most favorite inspirational examples about persistence is the story of an Asian Bamboo species that even after five years of watering, weeding and fertilizing is barely visible. Then in a span of about six weeks it grows two and a half feet a day to 90 feet and higher. It grows so fast that you can literally “hear” it growing. The question to ask is did the bamboo grow 90 feet in six weeks or did it grow 90 feet in five years?
Obviously it grew 90 feet in five years, for all the time when growth wasn’t visible it was developing a massive root system that would later support it’s magnificent growth.
Can you see where the current circumstances in your life are developing your massive root system? Can you see where you must continue to “fertilize” and “water” yourself even though maybe you can’t see any visible changes today?
Napoleon Hill thought that persistence was such a key to success that he devoted an entire chapter to it in the classic Think and Grow Rich. He writes, “Persistence is a state of mind, therefore it can be cultivated….Before success comes in any person’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a person, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of people do. More than five hundred of the most successful people this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”
These are some great stories of persistence sent in from people in the OurGV team.
I would like to share with you the true story of a little girl born in Alabama in 1920. This girl was born with severely disfigured arms and legs. Her parents were advised to institutionalize her as she would never be able to live in normal society. Her parents refused. As the girl grew, her father built her a wheel chair. Her mother taught her to sing, but the girl was smart so the mother decided the girl could do more. The mother tried a pencil in the hand, but nothing would work after many weeks and months of trying. Then the girl stuck up her foot, so the mother put the pencil between the big toe and the first toe. It stayed. Then they worked on keeping the paper on the table and getting the pencil and paper to make contact. Finally after many weeks, and many attempts the girl could write scribble on the paper like any other preschooler. As the months passed, the mother taught the girl. She was ready for the first grade. When the time came, the mother took the girl in her wheel chair to school, remember this is now 1926, the school refused to enroll the child because she could not feed herself, she could not put the pencil in her foot, she could not take care of her personal hygiene, she might scare the other children. The little girl just kept smiling at the other children. The mother explained the little girl had worked harder than any child there and she was going to school. She would stay with her and do anything that needed to be done. As for scaring the other children, most of the children already knew the girl from church. The mother asked the teacher if she was scared of the child as it was the teacher’s first year teaching. This was what my mother experienced on her first day of school.
This little girl graduated in 1938 from an Alabama High School with honors. No special classes, she did the same work as everyone else, no special treatment. None. Now that is Perseverance. The girl graduated with a big smile on her face, and my Grandmother said a lot of people cried as she got her diploma. This lady was at my mother’s high school class family reunions for years. I personally witnessed her drawing pictures using a pencil with her toes, I found it to be simply amazing. There were four children in my family growing up, anytime we had a school project we fussed about, Mother would say, “At least you don’t have to do it with your toes.” That always made us shut up.
Do all you can do today,because tomorrow holds enough for you to do tomorrow.
Carolyn Elrod
I know of one fellows story. This fellow was born into a very dysfunctional family. His father was an entertainer, a lady's man and a gambler. This fellow rarely saw him, and after the age of 10 not at all. This fellow's mother kept all the pictures of him up in the house, refused to divorce him, and cried herself to sleep, became even more aggressive than before, and beat this fellow and his brother with a metal dog lead for years.
The bitterness of this fellow's mother came to a head, when she went to the fellow's school to cancel to extra holiday everyone had been given. She said she did not want him around the house. The fellow was put into coventry by the whole school, and after a huge row, the older brother called the father. The father was emigrating, and as the older brother had just secured a place in University, the father left him alone. However he told the younger brother (this fellow) that he was emigrating, and to come with him and his girlfriend (later his father's 2nd wife). This fellow protested, he had a place in College, had just met a girl, and had started making friends. However the father said he would end up in the street with no place to stay, and his mother would come after him, and never leave him alone. The fellow emigrated, aged 16.
However in the new country the now step mother did not want the fellow around. She had a child from her first marriage, and the father did not treat his step son well, hence the step mother totally rejected having this fellow around. This fellow got a job, and a bedsit,; he was still 16. The new country had a foreign language, with English as second language, so trying to catch up to 16 year olds there was very difficult, and the fellow was working 14 hours a day in kitchens, so it was an end to the educational route the fellow had wanted.
All of this had left this fellow with a crushed self image. He went from one rock bottom job to another, and struggled to just survive for years. Years later when he was in his early 20's, this fellow's father met him. The fellow was good looking, and the father said he should have lots of girlfriends, like he himself did (his fathers 2nd marriage was on the rocks nearly by now). The father got a psychiatrist to get the fellow committed to a mental institution, after telling the fellow he needed it. The fellow was committed to a mental hospital, and spent years there.
This was now the lowest point, from which the fellow felt there was no chance of a normal life. He tried to cut his wrists, he failed. When this fellow came out, he met people who told him about suppressive people, and many other things. The fellow started to see his traumatic past in a clearer and clearer light. It took a lot of self education and reading.
The fellow returned to his home country, and eventually in his mid-forties he started to turn his life around. The efforts at changing his self esteem started to pay off, and the fellow met a beautiful Russian woman and married. This was the first time he had had a stable relationship, or ever lived with a woman.
Now the guy went on a roll. He got more and more confident. Things got better and better. Today this fellow is well on his way to becoming a millionaire. He has discovered and learned many things. He is very strong within himself, and no-one could begin to guess what he had been through and experienced.
Kim A.
Out of thousands of great perseverance stories, I would like to briefly talk about an incredible gentleman who overcame many adversities, Sidney Poitier.
Sidney Poitier, a writer and director, a thinker and critic, a humanitarian and diplomat, did not start this way. Born in 1927 Miami, Florida, Poitier made his way to New York at age 17, and held a string of low end jobs. During this time, he was arrested for vagrancy after being thrown out of his housing complex for not paying rent. He was a teenager, working as a dishwasher in a New York restaurant. Seeing an ad for actors in the Amsterdam News, a Harlem-based newspaper, he went to an audition at the American Negro Theater. The man who gave his his first script was Frederick O'Neal, a cofounder of the theater. O'Neal was impatient with young Poitier's Caribbean accent and poor reading skills, O'Neal lost his temper and told Poitier stop wasting people's time and to get himself a job as a dishwasher. Poitier knew he had to prove these people wrong and, at that moment, he was determined right then he was going to be an actor.
Poitier continued in his dishwashing job and at the same time learning how to correct his Caribbean accent as well as learning how to read. Ultimately, Poitier returned to the American Negro Theater, persuading its directors to hire him as a janitor in exchange for acting lessons. Since then, Poitier has starred in well over 50 films, ranging from A Raisin in the Sun to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner to more recent film like The Jackal.
In 1963, Poitier became the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor - for his role in Lilies of the Field. Talk about perseverance.
-Marwan Powell
I have picked the Apostal Simon (Peter) for the following reasons.--Simon was a simple fisherman tthat lived in a harsh and brutal time and fishing was all he knew. Jesus upon meeting him asked him to drop everything he knew and follow him and be a fisher of men (I think about this everytime we have the perpetual training) which he did and took his 3 partners with him. While traveling throughout the land he listened to the TEACHER and and learned to have faith.His faith was so strong that he was named the Rock. 2000 years ago these 12 men were taught the same lessons that we are now being taught in ourGV trainings; duplicity, recuiting, faith in the system, faith in themselves, and how to change themseves into leaders.Simon was probably the weakest man with the strongest faith and had the largest impact on religion as it is today. It is said that he started the Roman Chatholic Church and was the first pope but there are no historical facts to that effect. There are many lessons to learn here
Thank You
Francis Pelton
I think of Helen Keller and her teacher, Miss Sullivan. What perseverance Miss Sullivan had to not give up on Helen Keller. Helen went on to write books and to do so much with her life. When Miss Sullivan finally got through to her there was no holding Helen back!
-Maureen Rollins
After giving some thought, I realized there were many people's stories that I found inspiring. So, I narrowed it to a group of people. Last week (don't remember what day). Oprah had a show about children who were raising themselves. There were different reasons why this happened.
One teenage girl had a single mother, and she had a younger brother and sister. Their mother was a drug addict. So, the teenage girl had to take on the role of being the parent. She had to feed and clothe them, take them to school, etc. While she was going to school herself. Someone found out, and they were put in separate foster homes. Their mother was finally able to get them back. But the girl spent a long time trying to keep her family together. She didn't tell anyone about the struggle because she didn't want the family split up. She forgave her mother, and she said she and her mother have the best relationship now. Her mother has also been clean for I believe about 3 yrs. Her mother also said she learned from her daughter.
Another one was a young college girl that had 7 siblings, and she was the oldest. Their parents got murdered. There was no life insurance. She managed to keep her family together while she was in college. She's almost done, and at least 2 of her siblings will start college soon.
There were other stories as well. I remember while looking at this, I started to feel ashamed of myself. I didn't have all of those hardships those children had, and I began to ask myself what's my excuse?
-Marlo Thomas
I am writing about my youngest sister, Joan, who was born with a hole in her heart... a common disorder of Down's Syndrome, which she had.
In 1959, when Joan Rogers was born, Doctors routinely recommended Institutionalization upon release from the hospital.
The young doctor who delivered Joan was a friend of the family and thought he was offering the only solution for older parents who had 4
children ranging in age from 18 to 3.
Trent and Elsa, her parents, were horrified at the thought and Joan went home to a loving extended family who recognized that she was as great
a gift from God as any perfect child ever brought into the world.
As the years went by, Joan overcame small, then bigger obstacles...learning to scoot on her fanny instead of crawling, since her knees were not developing normally. She learned to utter sounds of speech by mimicking her sisters. This was hindered by the fact that she never got the four bottom front teeth that commonly emerge first. She had a wonderful, positive joy of life that is preserved for those, I believe, who hear God's voice all the time.
At 5 years old, her parents were told that Joan would never be able to function as a normal student in school... indeed, she was deemed "trainable", not "educable". Her grandmother, who had taught school in a one room schoolhouse in Oklahoma, ordered a set of McGuffy's readers, andset about teaching Joan to read. She learned....!
Then, each family member started to spend time with her practicing numbers, tying shoes, holding a pencil. Ultimately, Joan learned to multiply, divide, add, subtract, and she learned to type on one of the very early computers, with the screen attached and a cassette tape for memory.
She wrote letters, she sang in church, she learned to cook... (Joan made the most wonderful biscuits from scratch) . Her life was very full. She volunteered at the Catholic school, where her nephews attended, as a cafeteria worker.
Joan graduated from a special high school with a diploma in child care. Along the way, she learned how to run a printing press in herMother's printing company.
After our mother died in 1989, our sister helped Joan become part of a program that led to her working in St. Vincent's Hospital laundry. She was very proud of her pay checks and loved going to work. She even loved her work uniforms!
When our father died in 1994, Joan moved into a group home, where shelived until her death in 2003. She loved her group home family and enjoyed spending time with us, her siblings for weekends, holidays, birthdays... especially her own! Joan lived to be 44 years old, which with her physical problems was remarkable. She had lived a full, productive life in every respect.
Her last year, she declined very quickly, but upon her death, the day before Thanksgiving in 2003, we learned how many people her little life had touched. Her funeral service was packed with people from all walks of life, every age group,... From Doctors to her group home family... teenagers who volunteered
at the Group home, to church members, ministers... and most touching, the fellow workers who had been so amazed at her abilities. Hers was the
happiest funeral send off most of the attendees had ever seen. There was Joy in celebrating her life.
Her dis-ability, which is physically very evident, caused people to expect her to be incapable of worthy performance. But her ability... was due to her tenacity, her willingness to learn, her unconditional love of her fellow man... God let us have her for those years and we thank him for her...
But, I think the greatest lesson she taught us all is that she let noone define what she could do if she were taught and was determined.
I think of her often... with love, with a smile, with joy that she is now with God in her perfect state!!!
With Love.....
Judy Wolfersberger
This is Sally from England. I am a part of Julie's team and feel very privilege to be so. I was introduced through Sue Sweeney. I have been a member for just under a week and during that time have listened to as many training sessions as possible, which I must say are fantastic. Over the past week I have also made some decisions. At present I have two part time jobs, quite different really, one is an estate agent and the other is running a small client based beauty room from home. I have decided to give both up and work Global Vision full time. That's how much of an impression you have made on me. I am seriously ready for a life change not only for myself but my family.
This next part leads me on to your request for perseverance stories. This is probably not very impressive and not sure if its what you were asking for it is not about anyone famous etc. It's about my husband who would probably feel very embarrassed that I am telling you this. Seventeen years ago,my husband decided to do what we call in England, London The Knowledge. This is to learn the streets, buildings, and every major and significant site in London to become a London Taxi Driver. It's not something that you learn in just two weeks and go off and drive your taxi. It takes on average 3 years' if you study full time.
He decided on this as he thought it would give us more freedom, especially working for himself. Shortly after he started the Knowledge he realised that this was far more difficult than he anticipated as he still needed to work for us to pay the bills. He would get up at 4.30 am go and study physically on a motorcycle before work and then after work go to Knowledge School to study maps and get home around 9pm. He done this continuously week after week, month after month never wanting to give up.
Three years came and went and in between this time we had our first child. He was doing this for us as we believed it would change out lives also financially.
Unfortunately, my husband got into this forth year and everything still seemed so far away. We then had our second child and we could see a light at the end of tunnel as far as my husband getting his licence. He was at a stage where if you are being called for tests every three weeks you are nearly there, it had now been 4 and half years. I will never forget, my second son was 5 weeks old and my husband went for what he thought would be his next stage his driving test. Only to be told that the reason it had taken him so long was that they thought his hair was too long (only collar length) and wasn't giving the right image
They put him back on to 28 day testing which meant he had to go through a very long procedure to eventually get his licence. It took him another 14 months and with a hair cut that he really really didn't like.
At times we are not sure if it was worth it. He certainly feels that there are so may rules and regulations regarding his work that he sometimes feels he isn't his own boss. He works extremely hard, twelve to fourteen hours a day. Yes we have had nice holidays etc. and we are not poor but have no siginificant money behind so if he doesn't go to work we are certainly playing catch up, and as time goes by he is certainly not going to be able to work the hours he does.
So this is why I am going to persevere, to succeed so we won't have to downsize our home to substitute a pension in a few years time. If he can do what he did, I know I certainly can, because I have people around me. He was out there on his own.
Kind Regards
Sally
The example of persistence that does it for me is Nelson Mandela. I don't know his whole story and the absolute facts, but I know he spent 27 years in prison for something that he didn't do. He always beleived he would be proved innocent and he and his family campaigned for his release. He was finally realeased with his spirit still intact. This puts things into perspective for me!
I really enjoyed yesterdays 4pm voice room :0)
Have a great day
Susirich
(SueUK)
Absolutely THE greatest story of persistence is the story of Joshua & the Israeli army circling Jerico untill its gigantic walls came crashing down!!!
Jim Hutchison
So many stories came to mind, starting with my own life story to become a dancer, to start over in so many countries and learn so many languages, the perseverance to stick with it through thick and thin with our business, your relentless example of perseverance that we are so fortunate to see every day...
But I picked this one from Think & Grow Rich, from the same man from the story "Three feet from gold". This story I have always loved. Now, I'm not sure if persistence is the same as perseverance.
Here is from "Think & Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.
A FIFTY-CENT LESSON IN PERSISTENCE
Most of the stories that affect me personally would probably be considered stubborn Swedish stories(they tell me I can say that because I am a one half stubborn Swedish person.). They are stubborn Swedish stories and not really persistence because once something was planned there wasn't the option to quit so no matter if you cut off your foot, broke two or three fingers or rebroke the finger that was already broke and in the process of healing.
I guess I do have one story that isn't a stubborn Swedish story but who knows it's probably a stubborn German story or a case of temporary insanity. A friend of mine is a marathoner. He was in the Boston Marathon once but he has been in every Twin Cities Marathon and Fargo Marathon since their inception. Last year he hadn't put a lot of time into training but people were nagging him so he decided what the heck he hadn't missed a Fargo Marathon yet and it wasn't like he was expecting to win it, just beat his own time from last year. Race day came and he was prepared for the weather and had picked out the sweatshirt he was prepared to lose because when he'd take it off it would just get thrown to the side never to be seen again. He was happy with the weather and saw a friend at the start and they were running together. His friends pace was a little more than he had planned but he went along at least for a while. Then he dropped back to a little less of a pace. Then at 13 miles--it happened. He hit the famous invisible wall. It hit him hard he tripped over his own feet and fell and skidded mostly on his face. His glasses were driven into his face and blood was streaming down the side. But he did get up and keep on running. Someone from the med tent chased him down but had to bandage him as he ran. When he finally finished the race he was grabbed as he crossed the finish line to go to the med tent to stitch his face. The local paper had planned on a front page picture of the local guy that had been in every marathon but didn't want a bloody picture of a runner so he got a mention on page 26. He did beat his time from the previous year so he was happy. Because he knows he is too stubborn to miss any of the Fargo orMinneapolis marathons he is out every day running sun, rain, sleet or snow.
Yeah when something is important giving up isn't an option, but training for it is. Oh and you do have to take care of yourself along the way although it doesn't seem like Steve is in this case. ON race day it is all about the race. Pick your pace, shake off things that aren't necessary, when something trips you up or you trip yourself up just get up and keep on truckin, obstacles are only permanent if you let them have the power to be. Keep your eyes on the prize.
When he's training he actually has 7 pairs of running shoes so the moisture completely dries out between using them. He says that is good for the feet and the shoes.
-Debra Love
Mr Darby -the man who had quit "three feet from gold"- after that experience, and having decided that he would learn from it, was able to be present on an occasion that proved to him that "no does not necessarily mean no".
One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of coloured sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.
He looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, "what do you want?" Meekly, the child replied, "My mammy say send her fifty cents.""I'll not do it", the uncle retorted, "Now you run on home." "Yas sah", the child replied. But she did not move. The uncle went ahead with his work, so busily engaged ahtat he did not pay enough attention to the child to observe that shes did not leave. When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, "I told you to go on home! Now go, or I"ll take a switch to you."
The little girl said "yas sah" but she did not budge an inch. The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an expression on his face that indicated trouble. Darby held his breath. He was certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper. He knew that coloured children were not supposed to defy white people in that part of the country.
When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, "MY MAMMY'S GOTTA HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS!"
The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on the floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out a half a dollar, and gave it to her.
The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she just conquered. After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had just taken. Mr Darby, too, was doing some thinking. That was the first time in all his experience that he had seen a coloured child deliberately master an adult white person. How did she do it? What happened to his uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other similar questions flashed into Darby's mind, but he did not find the answer until years later, when he told me the story.
Strangely, the story of this unusual experience was told to the author in the old mill, on the very spot where the uncle took his whipping. Strangely, too, I had devoted nearly a quarter of a century to the study of the power which enabled this child to conquer an intelligent man who was her superior. As we stood there in that musty old mill, Mr. Darby repeated the story of the unusual conquest, and finished by asking, "What can you make of it? What strange power did that child use, that so completely whipped my uncle?"
After I had described to Mr Darby the power unwittingly used by the little child, he quickly retraced his thirty years of experience as a life insurance salesman, and frankly acknowledged that his success in that field was due, in no small degree, to the lesson he had learnt from the child.
Mr. Darby pointed out: "every time a prospect tried to bow me out, without buying, I saw that child standing there in the old mill, her big eyes glaring in defiance, and I said to myself, " I've gotta make this sale." The better portion of all sales I have made, were made after people had said "NO"."
He recalled, too, his mistake in having stopped only three feet from gold, "but", he said, "that experience was a blessing in disguise. It taught me to
keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything."
This story of Mr Darby and his uncle, the child, and the gold mine, doubtless will be read by hundreds of men and women who make their living by selling life insurance, and to all of these, the author wishes to offer the suggestion that Darby owes to these two experiences his ability to sell more than a million dollars of life insurance every year.
