Power of Persistence – Chapter 8: Take the Red Pill, Quit the Quo

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I’m going to tell you a wildlife story about the African honey badger. Or rather take it from a passage I read in another book…

The book was called How To Stop Working And Make A Million Pounds Instead by John Harrison which I randomly saw somewhere and started reading. The story related to a wildlife program about the African honey badger. Apparently they’re not shy and cuddly, and described here as a pitbull in a badger suit.

Badgers are quit the menace, you get them in my part of the world occasionally and they can give you a nasty nip I can tell you and freak you out when they scuttle around.

These particular ones, as the name suggests, go after honey. Which exists in beehives. With lots of crazy bees buzzing around them. Here’s the passage from the book:

Watching the honey badger go about it’s work was fascinating. Having located a hive in a hollowed out tree it cleared out the debris to make a wider entrance. The reason would soon become clear: it was going to need an escape route, and it knew it. The badger’s first foray into the hive was painful to watch. It was attacked systematically by the bees and got only a small mouthful of honey before withdrawing to lick its wounds.

At this point you expected the badger to give up having learned a painful lesson. Not a bit of it! Time after time it went back into the hive, getting stung each time and only getting small amounts of honey in return. You almost found yourself screaming “For God’s sake, don’t go back in!,” as another visit resulted in more pain.

But as time went on , a funny thing happened. The stings got less and less as the stinging bees died off, and the badger came away with more and more booty on each visit. Eventually, the bees gave up the fight and the badger made off into the bush with the entire hive. Victory, from what appeared initially to be a hopeless quest.

The badger knew the job wasn’t going to be easy from the start. He knew he wasn’t going to get something for nothing, and that pain would inevitably precede pleasure. By clearing out the entrance to the hive he was preparing for the numerous tactical withdrawals which he knew would be necessary. But what he also knew was that if he kept at the job, he persisted, eventually the resistance would be broken down and his goal would be reached. Of course, he had an alternative.

After going into the hive for the first time and getting stung so badly for so little he could have thought: “This isn’t worth it. I’ll go and find an easier hive.” But he didn’t, because he knew that all hives are difficult, and if you want the honey you just have to buckle down and do what’s necessary.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - become a badger.

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Here's the friendly little chap… looks like a nutter!

Ahh, persistence… probably the Daddy of all personal development advice. The one defining factor over anything else. It beats talent and anything else hands down on what it takes to achieve success. It’s essential. It’s Imperative. It’s the cornerstone.

Like discipline it is not sexy. It is hard continuous graft. No overnight riches, just continuously banging your head against a wall. Keeping on and keeping on in the face of all adversity, roadblocks and challenges. Getting knocked down continuously but getting back up each time and marching on.

Doesn’t sound like fun. Of course it isn’t and sometimes you don’t hear about an individual or group ‘paying their dues’ in this way before reaching a goal or objective. But it’s there. It’s always there and if you don’t do it, live it, then there is no chance for you… but if you are persistent and continue to be so then you can’t fail.

So what you need is a desire, an unwavering self belief in what you’re doing, a plan for achieving it, faith in the outcome and continuous action and pure dogged determination for its achievement. Do not take no for an answer.

There is a process. No-one ever achieved anything noteworthy without this process of persistence. This is a cold hard fact I’m afraid. Most people give up at the first hurdle, but you and I won’t be doing that… we’ll take every hurdle until the race is won.

Some people don’t even try so you’re already ahead of the pack when you take the first steps. Then out of those people most give up quite easily. Then you’re left with the hard-core elite. Then later on a few more will drop out, probably not too far from success which is a shame but so be it. Then you are left with those who have the keys to the kingdom.

This spells great opportunity because if you are prepared to be persistent and are diligent you will win the prize and enter said kingdom. Not only opportunity but it may actually be easier… whilst everyone else is scrapping for the low hanging fruit, there will be hardly anyone at the top going for the good stuff so you can help yourself to the rich pickings.

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And you reach this stage with our ugly, yet super intelligent and ingenious friend, persistence. If you took a friend called ‘Persistence’ to a party they wouldn’t necessarily be the life and soul. But they would be there at the end and all the way through. They would also get the girl (or boy), not through great looks or charm but by being the right place at the right time and seeing it through.

There’s not much I can write about persistence to persuade you to use it. You already know all too well about this boring concept and you groaned when you saw the chapter title. But it’s included as it’s the worst kept and least sexy secret of all time. It’s the difference.

Colonel Sanders at age 66 approached 2000 restaurants with his chicken recipe before success. You may well be familiar and indeed indulged in the resulting produce, KFC.
JK Rowling approached at least 12 publishers before the famous Harry Potter franchise took off.
The Rocky story has already been mentioned in this book. Sly Stallone going round all the agencies in New York several times before finding a way.

There are far more stories like this.

To finish this chapter I’ll give you one of my favourite quotes of all time…

By the time I was fourteen, the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled on it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing - Stephen King

Following all that we need to be aware and conquer our fears. We all have many, especially of what others think of us, what they say (and may say) and perhaps laugh at us etc is one of the top ones. Beware and smash the fear of criticism…