Apr 10
2
Persistence: Part One
Imagine that you’re invited to Las Vegas to the MGM Grand Hotel where there are 5,000 guest rooms.
The owner says to you, “Under one of the beds in the hotel, there’s a suitcase full of $1 million dollars. All you need to do is to go into each room, look under the bed and — when you find it — it’s yours.”
On the surface, most people would say “Woo hoo! I’ll do it. And I’ll be a millionaire!”
But that’s not actually what would happen.
- Because some people would search a few hundred rooms and quit.
- Some people would whine about how the little plastic keycard doesn’t always work and they have to go back down to the main desk to get another one.
- Some people would complain that their back hurts when they bend over to look under the bed
- Some people will begin to wonder if they were scammed
- Some people will not bother to look in the first place because they don’t want their friends to laugh at them or to think they’re having money problems
- Some people will show up every once in a while and go through the motions, but they don’t really believe they’ll find it
- Some people will stand around in the lobby and the hallways for the social aspect
- Some people will whine and complain that they haven’t been properly trained on how to open the door
- Some people will spend all their time asking the hotel manager for advice and then ignoring it
And…
- The people who persist in their goal will eventually learn little things that will make the task easier….they’ll find out ways to get things done faster….and they will eventually find the suitcase.
And when they do, many of the others will assume the person was “special” in some way.
FINAL THOUGHT:
Some people will read this story and think it preaches “blind perseverance”. I”m not recommending that. Use your head. Know when you’re in a situation that isn’t working for you and adapt accordingly. Never give up on your dreams but you MAY need to change plans or financial vehicles every once in awhile.
But, the main point of the story is that everyone had the same opportunity to find the suitcase. Some people might have some natural gifts or talents that let them find it more easily than others…but the suitcase is available to everyone.
So, yes, lots of times the biggest difference between the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS is that the ‘haves’ stuck around longer.
There’s more to this story…stick around for Part Two in which we’ll cover the difference between “persistence” and “too stupid to quit”…
