Episode 006 Persistence is the key

 Persistence and Success

Entrepreneurship or starting a small business today is hard, there are so many challenges and pitfalls for the unsuspecting person. Anything great worth having requires a lot of work and an attitude from you that is persistence. I want you to think about all the amazing things that people have achieved in life, have any of them been easy? Or have any of the greatest ideas every happened on the first attempt? A great example is a light bulb, 1001 attempts until Thomas Edison got it right. Now please don’t think I am trying to say that it will take 1001 attempts to get your business right, but I am saying that it is going to time and effort.

I see great business ideas and great people who simply give up on their dreams because they were never taught that persistence is the key to success. There isn’t a successful business or person alive that wouldn’t tell you that persistence was the difference for them. We only ever seem to notice success not the attempts that were made to get there, the age old saying there is no such thing as an overnight success is so true! I am not a cliché type of person that likes to sprout quotes but one of my favourite quotes is from Albert Einstein where he says “failure is success in progress” and for me to add onto this, persistence is what drives you to get past those failures!

Consistency fuels persistence.

Showing up, day in and day out, is the single most important thing you can do to set yourself on a path to achieving your dreams and becoming the best business owner you can be.

I talk a lot about becoming the authority in your space and building a reputation. The best way to do that is by continuously showing up.  Consistency is how you establish your reputation and show people what you are about through your actions and not just your words.

Through this consistency your audience becomes to know, like and trust you, this accountability helps to demonstrate to them that you can deliver what you are promising! Time is a funny commodity when it comes to small business, your consistent action moving forward will see you gain a community around you which is what we all want!

The concept of Persistence

Persistence can seem rather basic as a concept, but I wanted to dedicate a whole episode to it because I am so passionate about it. Persistence is made up of so many components and I wanted to unpack that so I could give you more strategies to focus on to make your persistence muscle stronger! Persistence itself helps to amplify the positive that occurs in your life, and it helps you to cope through the tougher times when things might not be going to plan. Persistence will continue to propel you forward and stop you from dwelling in those tougher times giving you something to work towards.

Parts of persistence

So lets unpack some of the parts that make up persistence! Starting with the big one, self-belief, this is such a huge part of persistence. Believing in what you do and, in your abilities, will enable you to push further than you ever could imagine. Even when a situation seems hopeless, a persistent person will not accept defeat or give up. Entrepreneurship at its foundation is based on this premise of self-belief, and persistence. There is a line, those who believe will achieve, as long as you are persistent in your pursuit of success.

Fear can paralyse the best in the business, it does not discriminate and is universal. My favourite acronym for fear is false evidence appearing real, and it is just that false evidence or a story that you tell yourself based on untrue thoughts and feelings. Fear is a whole topic on its own, as is all these parts that make up persistence, but I really want you to understand how important persistence is. When you are in the fear zone, persistence gives you the opportunity to just stop the thoughts and revaluate the situation and realise that you are working towards your dreams. Fear often cripples people for extended periods of time, this will only stop you from achieving what you truly want, so its important to get past it quickly.

Confidence and persistence

Consistently working towards your goal with purpose and persistence also helps create confidence. When you have that never give up attitude regardless of the obstacles your confidence levels go through the roof. Problems seem not to matter so much and you are more likely to think clearer about how you will be navigating through it, rather than questioning yourself and paralysing yourself through fear. Confidence is a great tool to foster through being persistent. Can you see how persistence has so many facets to it!

Where there is success there needs to be failure, this is a learning journey, not something that everyone can do, nor a skill that is learnt over night. Rejection kills so many small business dreams, and it shouldn’t. There will be opportunities for your product or service if there is a demand in the market. You do need to realise when to give up, but I am not covering that today, my message around rejection is to keep persisting. Famous book authors, actors, food producers and public speakers have all been shut down so many times, we don’t tend to focus on the trying we only focus on the success so its hard for you to realise that rejection is a normal part of the growth to success.  If you have ever been in or are part of a multi level marketing organisation the number one piece of advice they tell you is that it’s a numbers game, for every person that says no you are closer to a yes! Its exactly the same in small business, its your next opportunity to make a sale. Persistence is the key to propel you forward for longer so that the yes becomes louder and more frequent as you hone your message and build a following.

Learning from your mistakes

Entrepreneurs know that quitting is not an option for success, nor is having a pitty party when things go wrong. Learning from your failures or things that go wrong is such an important part to business success. It teaches you so much when you are willing to look at the situation through questioning eyes and be open to the learnings that its trying to teach you. Persistence is what will give you the ability to do this, knowing that you need to keep pushing and keep asking those questions and showing up each and everyday to your audience this is what brings success to your door. Failure in some form or another is guaranteed to happen, how you handle it makes all the difference.

Wrap up

Persistence is a skill that is highly underrated when speaking around the topic of small business, the different layers and aspects to it often hides its true value. As a simple concept you can see the importance of training that part of your brain so that you can keep pushing when times get tough. Good things don’t come to those that wait, it comes to those that move heaven and earth, weather the storms and show up each and every day.

Please as always share your ideas in the group or ask for help! If you are not part of Plan to Profit community then please check out the link below and join our brand-new community!

Meet Your Host

Carol Lange 

From a young age I have been surrounded by business success. Having formally studied a Double Degree of Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Management, this led to many successful opportunities.

I have been an employee for large accounting firms and international companies. I have run two highly successful businesses, becoming sought after in my industry internationally.

I have spoken nationally on the topic of money management and loved having the quiet coffee making radical changes for my clients. I am not a limelight chaser, just a quiet achiever looking to make a difference in the world.

Thankyou for joining me on the podcast, my dream is to inspire you to take action that will create a difference in your life! Dream no more and live the life that you have always wanted.