Persist until you succeed.
One of my favorite stories of how to persist involves the former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. You might know him as the tough, strong, versatile outdoorsman who was admired as much for his active lifestyle as he was for his leadership of the free world. The man was vigorous and he was enthusiastic, known for hunting bears and hosting boxing matches in the White House. He rode horses, lifted weights, skated on ice, rowed, and even gave a campaign speech after getting shot by a would-be assassin! When you look up “tough” in the dictionary you should expect to see his picture right there.
However, what many people do not know about Teddy Roosevelt is that he was not born that way. Not even close. His toughness, his active lifestyle, his strong body and will was earned with persistent effort over a long period of time. You see, Theodore Roosevelt was born to a prominent family but was a puny and sickly young boy. He suffered from terrible asthma, poor eyesight, and possessed such a thin body that he was picked on at school by his classmates. Although he certainly was smart and displayed signs of having a tough mind, his body was that of a weakling that was destined for a tough life of failures.
Around the age of 12, Roosevelt’s father gave him a very stern lesson. His father told him “you have the mind but not the body, and without the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.” So what did future Pre
sident Roosevelt do? He persisted. He worked on his body every single day for years, and continued that habit for the rest of his life. He worked on himself until he became the man that so many saw in the public eye, as strong and enthusiastic as ever. He lifted weights. He boxed. He learned to ride horses and he learned to row. Day in and day out his was on a mission to change his body so that it could take him where his mind wanted to go. He wasn’t born the strong and intimidating leader of which he became, but he persisted until he succeeded in ultimately becoming the leader of the free world.
Persistence is a Key to Unlocking the Success Formula
Surely you have heard phrases such as “nothing worth doing is easy,” or “fail forward.” There is a reason these quotes and phrases become cliches which are repeated over and over again. It is because they are true!
If you are beginning a new business, especially an entrepreneurial venture or a sales career in real estate then you should already understand that big success is probably not going to come easy. Sure, some of you have either been sold on or convinced yourself that the path you chose is for “easy money” or to “get rich quick.” However most of you know those things are not true in most cases (unless you win the lottery, of course!).
You will need to persist in order to succeed, and you will need to push harder and harder each day to reach the success you desire and deserve. Some days it might be easy, some days it might be hard. But every day you must remind yourself that you will persist until you succeed. You must tell yourself that a failure is only a lesson, and next time you will be the winner.
If at First You Do Not Succeed, Get Up and Try Again
Let me use the example of learning to ride a bicycle, for example. Unless you are truly some sort of prodigy, most of us were not born with the natural ability to hop on such a mechanical device with two thin wheels and just ride off into the sunset. First of all, if we sit on that bike without moving we are going to fall over! Secondly, we need to learn (many times the hard way) that it takes speed in order to balance that bicycle. Speed creates the physics which creates the balance which creates the confidence. However, I bet most of us had to fall off that bicycle a few times before we finally got it right.
But let’s think for a moment, what if you hadn’t tried again after your very first fall? What if when you were first learning to ride a bicycle that you fell and decided to never try again? Think of all the things you might have missed! The joys of riding around the neighborhood with your friends, or maybe taking a long ride with your parents and exploring a new part of town, or possibly even the joys of racing or participating in competitive biking down the road. None of that would have been possible if you would have given up after that very first fall.
You must persist. If at first you do not succeed, get up and try again!
The Reality of a Sales Business
You are going to be told no, shrugged off, ignored, among many other things more often than you are going to make the sale. You will get more no’s than yesses, in all of their various forms. But I ask you – so what? Who cares about the no’s? Who cares about the business you didn’t get? What I care about is the business that I DO get, and I understand how precious it is and how important each and every sale is to the promotion of a long and successful sales career.
But that is why you are going to persist until you succeed. You have a different path, the path of a great salesman and the path of a true success. You are not going to give up, you are not going to back down.
Let’s use real estate sales as an example. There are many ways you can generate leads for your real estate business. I mean tons! I literally teach you more than 10 in my Superstars 2.0 training class alone! So let’s say you are sticking your neck out and trying a new one – For Sale by Owners (FSBOs). The tried and true process of prospecting to those in your community who decided it was right for them to try and sell their house without a real estate agent.
There are many ways you can organize a prospecting plan to try and turn FSBOs into clients for your real estate business. Let’s say one of them is to pick up the phone once per week and call all of the FSBOs in your market area. OH NO! Not the phone! (that’s a subject for another day) And let’s say on this particular day you have 10 on your list, and you are going to sit down and use your training and call each of them to try and set an appointment to turn them from a FSBO to your client.
You call person #1 on the list and they don’t answer, so you decide to leave a detailed voicemail. Ok, onto #2. The second person on your list answers the phone and screams “you darn real estate agents, you need to stop calling me!” and hangs up. Ouch. Deep breath. On to #3. Even worse. The third person doesn’t stop there, they even decide to call you choice words that would make even the country club golfer blush! Double ouch.
Ok, you tell yourself, I made three phone calls. Each one is getting worse than the one before, so I am just going to stop. Obviously this list of FSBOs is not for me, and therefore I’ll just move on to something else. I can’t take things getting even worse here!
Later on in the afternoon, you run into a fellow new agent in your office named Mary. You exchange small talk, and then ask what Mary is up to. She is excited to tell you that she has two appointments with FSBOs later this evening that she is getting ready for and she is so excited! You might be happy for her, but you also want to find out how in the world she did it?! So you ask, “Mary how did you do it?”
Mary then explains that she had a list of 10 FSBOs from her market area, and she sat down and decided to call each one. “Man, the first few were ROUGH I tell ya” Mary says. “But I didn’t let it bother me, and sure enough #8 and #9 were very pleased to hear from me and asked if I could come over and speak with them tonight!” Hmmm. You ask to see Mary’s list. Of course, it is the same list you were working on! What’s the obvious difference? You decided to quit after person #3 was rude and cursed at you, and Mary just kept on and made sure to make every call on the list. Mary persisted until she succeeded, and you should always do the same.
Persist Until You Succeed
Repeat those words, repeat them daily. I promise you, with consistent effort and the positive spirit of persistence you will make it in whatever endeavor you choose. This is your life, persist until you succeed!!