ENDURE

• When you finally get the client to say yes and find out the inventory is gone. Endure.

• When it absolutely, positively, has to be there Friday, and the shipper notifies you that it will be delivered on Tuesday. Endure.

• When your best employee tells you she's moving across the country and quitting. Endure.

• When your best client changes jobs to a company with preferred vendors that don't include you. Endure.

• When your clients tell you that they are cutting their budgets and this means you. Endure.

It's a damn shame that Endurance has to be The (not so) Secret To Success. After all, the dictionary often includes the word "suffer" in defining "endure"...
to support adverse force or influence of any kind; suffer without yielding; suffer patiently,
to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding,
to bear without resistance or with patience; tolerate,

That doesn't sound like fun, does it? But it is a part of earning success. Get knocked down. Get back up. Rinse and repeat. Curse. Smile. Carry on. Choose to run the marathon - not the sprint. Endurance is critical in any endeavor in which you wish to be one of the best.  That means you better love what you’re doing because I don’t think that endurance is possible without passion.  

There was once (and he's still around and rocking it) a great philosopher who was part of a band that played for eight hours a night, every night for years and years in dingy bars until one day they became overnight successes and one of the most popular groups in history. He wrote: "You got to pay your dues, if you want to sing the blues,
And you know it don't come easy
You don't have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy
Forget about the past and all your sorrow
The future won't last, it will soon be your tomorrow.
Richard Starkey (aka Ringo Starr).

You need to commit to be the best.  Why live small?  To be the best you need to focus on being the best.  And this means taking daily steps toward large goals, have planned weekly activities that move you from good to great.  The difference is not big.  Just do one more thing.  Make one more phone call.  Send out one hand-written thank you note. Make a point to recognize one kind act or stellar performance.  You don’t need to be a lot better than your competition — just a little bit.  The difference of one stroke in a major golf tournament can mean a couple million dollars to the player.  The difference between fourth place and gold in many Olympic events is measured in hundredths of a second.

Enduring does mean having a process and following it. Endurance requires passion and it requires commitment.  Nobody said it was easy.  Most worthwhile things aren’t.  But one thing is sure — somebody is making the impossible reality because they are committed and are doing it.

I always hated to run.  But I was committed to not being grossly overweight.  I’ve always been a large framed person and when I quit smoking cigarettes, saw the effects of heart disease on my father and decided I didn’t want to have my chest split open — I decided to run.  My journal shows an entry that I “tried to run 100 yards.”  The next day’s entry says “jogged 150 yards.”  The start of my journey to running twenty 26.2 mile marathons including Boston, New York, Chicago and others in twelve states began by trying to run from one telephone pole to the next.  That goal became the goal to run a mile.  That goal became the goal to run a 5k (3.1 miles) and then a 10k and then a 25k and finally the full marathon.  There were always reasons to quit but I chose to endure.  I never measured myself against those who ran along with me.  I measured myself against those who never had the courage to start.

Never let setbacks stop you from remembering the big picture. Take the attitude of being a problem solver and always doing your best. There will always be things that are out of your control. Move on. Think about how to improve on a bad situation and make better. (Take a sad song, and make it better - darn it - there I go again). 

Endurance works. It worked for Sylvester Stallone whose idea for a movie about a boxer was turned down by a dozen studios. It worked for Walt Disney who was laughed out of a dozen banks about wanting to finance stories about a mouse. It worked for scores of "overnight successes" and it will work for you.