This is my inspirement for Leadership Academy Master Class:
I Will Persist
Without Exception
By: Isaiah Pack
In 1858, a man was defeated in his
run for U.S. Senate. Now, this happens all the time, but you may want to know
that it was this man’s eighth time he had been defeated in an election. As he
realized his defeat, this man thought back to about twenty-seven years earlier,
when all had been going well for him. He’d had a decent job, he’d had direction
in his life, and he’d had a future. Nothing could go wrong for him—but
everything did. After losing his job, he failed in business. On top of that,
his fiancé died, and he had suffered a nervous breakdown, and he had been
rejected for a land officer position. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was
that man in 1858, I would have quit. But this man had the persistence not to.
Abraham Lincoln was elected
president of the United States
in 1860, and in office, he freed the slaves, won the Civil War, and kept
together a nation that was falling apart. If Lincoln
would have quit that day in 1858, we likely would not be a United
States, and slavery would probably still be
common and acceptable in our society today. Even after his election and
successes, Lincoln bore many
failures. More than one of his sons died, he was despised and criticized by
many, and was assassinated in 1865. But Lincoln
kept going, and he undoubtedly changed the world forever.
Of course, we have all had failures.
Lucille Ball, who later became the first woman to run a major television
studio, was once dismissed from drama school because she was “too shy”. Thomas
Edison was called crazy as he tried over two-thousand times before finally
inventing the first incandescent light bulb. Michael Jordan was cut from his
high-school basketball team, only to later become the most talented basketball
player of all time. Walt Disney, who won seven Emmy Awards and twenty-two
academy awards, was once fired from a newspaper company for “lacking
imagination”. Any person who has been successful in this world has failed more
than once. The only people who do not fail are those who do not live. Now, you
may be thinking, why am I talking so much about failure? Why does failure even
matter? Well, you’re right. It doesn’t. What matters is what we do because of
failure.
The book we read this month for
Vanguard was called “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. In this book, a
fictional character named David Ponder is taken on a journey to see several
people from world history. The last person David meets on this journey is the
angel Gabriel, who talks to David about persistence. From the angel, David
learns that being persistent means having faith that all will be well and that
faith is the key to persistence. He learns that giving up does not create any
positive results, and that the only way to have success in life is to be persistent.
I myself find, in my personal life,
that persistence is the best way to go when I am having a hard time. What
especially helps me is seeing others persist and succeed. Robert Frost once
said, “The best way out is always through.” I have seen in my life that this is
so true. There is no way to success through any shortcut or easy way. You have
to work for what you get, and persistence without exception is an important key
to success.
From the mouth of many other
witnesses this principle has been taught. Winston Churchill put it like this: “Success
is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” James A.
Michener said, “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth
tries.” Jesus Christ even taught this principle by teaching, “But he that shall
endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
I would like to tell another story about a man who possessed
the virtue of persistence. Steve Jobs lived not too long ago, and in case you
aren’t aware, he was the co-founder of the company called Apple. Jobs came out
with his first attempt at a business computer in 1980, and it was called the
Apple III. It came into the market with countless issues, and it was abandoned
a few years later. Next, Jobs tried “Lisa” in ’83, but at ten-thousand dollars,
barely anyone could afford it. The list of attempts and fails goes on and on
for Jobs, but not once did he give up trying to design a computer that would
work.
Look at what has happened now because of Steve Jobs. Apple is
thriving, earning so much money each day that it is hard to count. The
technology that Jobs has helped discover is hard to imagine. At the time of
Jobs’ death, he had owned an estimated net worth of seven billion dollars. How
much more successful can you be? However, none of this would have come about if
it hadn’t been for persistence. It has been proved time and time again that
with persistence, one cannot fail, and one cannot succeed without it.
I would like to encourage you. When you feel sad, depressed,
or you just feel like a failure, always remember persistence. Remember people
like Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs. Remember all
of the failures that they had, and remember how they persisted. Always remember
that because of persistence, they found success. That is how I know that
persistence is one of the most important keys to success.
Dirty Trick
I was proud of myself as I kept going down. Deeper and deeper I got.