LESSON 2

PERSISTENCE AS A DIFFERENTIATOR

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

—CALVIN COOLIDGE

Imagine that you were absolutely certain that you knew what you wanted and you were told up front that you could achieve it. There was nothing that you wanted more, and you would even risk your life to achieve it. But there is a catch: You would need to wait more than fifty years before you could fulfill your goal. Would you wait? Or would you seek out a different goal? Think about this for a moment.

Now imagine that not only would you have to wait five decades in order to achieve your goal, but twenty-seven of those years would be spent in the confines of a small prison cell. Maybe this is a goal that might not be worth the effort, and it would be good to focus on something else. Your friends would certainly understand if you moved on to a different pursuit. Nelson Mandela would have disagreed. Beginning in his teens, Mandela fought for the end of apartheid and the freedom of all South Africans. It was this struggle that led to a quest that lasted fifty-plus years, including the twenty-seven that he was forced to spend in prison.

During this time Mandela never lost sight of his goal and larger purpose, and throughout his imprisonment he persisted. In fact, in many ways his influence grew even stronger while he was in confinement. Upon his release in 1990 he immediately gave a speech to reinforce his beliefs in the importance of a free and nonsegregated country. Just four short years later the first multiracial election was held in South Africa and Mandela was elected as the first-ever black president of the country. In doing so he showed the world what true persistence is about and was able to progress a step further in his mission and trajectory.

As Nelson Mandela so poignantly exemplified, success is about more than just ability and luck. Of course, it didn't hurt that Mandela had both. He did have great ability, especially with instantly captivating a crowd and getting people to believe in his vision. And he was lucky that he wasn't sentenced to death and executed like some of his comrades. But those factors alone would not have enabled him to become a major historical influence recognized around the world. Thus, although ability and luck are important, persistence—a close cousin to motivation—is essential to maintaining the trajectory you desire.

It is persistence that truly differentiates those who are successful from those who are not. Leaders with this key attribute continually look into the future and set goals for themselves, regardless of any prior failures or setbacks. In fact, those with the greatest persistence use failure as a motivating factor to try again and do even more. Without persistence it is significantly more difficult to remain successful over time, which will limit your trajectory and potential for continual success.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSISTENCE

In the psychological literature there is a compelling body of research that has explored the factors that underlie successful performance. On the most simplistic level this research can be explained via a straightforward equation: Ability × Persistence = Performance. As Mandela and the opening quote by Calvin Coolidge illustrate, talent and ability alone are not sufficient. Persistence alone also is not enough. According to the equation, if either ability or persistence is absent then so is performance. As we will discuss, coupling your ability with persistence will provide you with an ongoing differentiator in life.

This simple but important research finding can readily be brought to life if you think back to high school. We all know of someone who was at or near the top of our graduating class in terms of grades; school came easily to that person. Yet it was surprising to learn years later—perhaps at a class reunion—that this same person had not been immensely successful after high school. It may have been even more surprising to learn that an average or somewhat below-average student had done very well in the years following graduation. In actuality, the different trajectories of these individuals should not have been surprising at all. The reason for the difference is typically quite clear. The former high performer based his career path on ability alone and was missing one of the key ingredients: persistence. The average student, however, had both of these ingredients.

Let's pretend that ability and persistence both can be scored on a 10-point scale (with 1 being low and 10 being high). The student who had the great grades was maybe a 9 on ability and a 5 on persistence, for an overall performance quotient of 45 (9 × 5). The average but ultimately more successful student was only a 6 on ability, but an 8 on persistence. This combination results in a performance quotient of 48 (6 × 8), which is higher than that of the student with the high grades. It is of course not this clean-cut in the real world, but it is easy enough for you to consider how this formula could apply to you and your trajectory at work. The point is not that you need to be a 10 on each element, but that you can compensate for lower ability if you are extremely persistent.

The elements underlying the significance of persistence are closely connected to motivation theory in psychology. Motivation, though, can be short-lived if the reasoning behind it is faulty. However, if you are motivated for the right reasons, it will become much easier to remain persistent, even when confronted with adversity. You have likely heard of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Persistence is accelerated when you apply yourself toward those things that you are intrinsically driven to achieve; that is, those things that you love doing.

The factors underlying intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are very different. On the one hand, extrinsic drive may get you jump-started on something, but it has a short shelf life. The reason is that extrinsic motivation is about external factors that make you want to do something, and you may not have any passion for what you are doing beyond a material reward you seek. For example, someone may offer you money to help build a start-up company, but if you do not believe in it and are not emotionally attached to the mission, you are likely to lose enthusiasm before long. It has been shown that extrinsic rewards will actually lead to what is known as an undermining effect on performance. More specifically, you become less likely to reach a goal when the only thing that motivates you toward it is a tangible reward.

On the other hand, intrinsic drive is about what excites you. It is what invigorates you and pushes you to do more. It is not about the extrinsic motivational factors like pay or other rewards. Extrinsic rewards are important (and often necessary) but alone do not independently create a high or sustained level of persistence. Only intrinsic motivation can do this. People often state that they would continue to do what they do even if there were no money involved. They say this because they truly love and are motivated by what they do. This is intrinsic motivation, and it is something you must seek in order to create a fulfilling trajectory.

A great example of intrinsic drive is found in professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. He grew up with a love for the sport during a time when it was considered something for outcasts. Nevertheless, he had such a passion and skill for skateboarding that he knew he had to chase his dream. He loved it so much that he pursued it knowing he would not make any money from it. He was intrinsically driven to be the best skateboarder in the world.

Hawk shows us how you can capitalize on your passions and intrinsic drive to develop opportunities where none existed. When he picked up his first skateboard he could not have imagined that he would have a video game named after him. He would not have believed that he could turn his skill into a business empire. A word Hawk uses to describe how he achieved his success is authenticity. Through being authentic you will do more than if you sell yourself and your principles short. And you cannot be fully authentic if you are not intrinsically connected to your goals.

Tony Hawk actually describes his trajectory in How Did I Get Here?: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO. In it he relates how he received his first skateboard at the age of nine and could not get enough of it. How he turned pro at the age of fourteen. How one of his first checks was for just eighty-five cents! He then had a rapid jump in his trajectory and was making nearly $150,000 per year at the age of nineteen. Just a few years later he was back to barely making enough money to pay the rent. He began to realize that he needed to do more than just skate, but he did not want to let go of skating. What he found was a way to focus a business on his passion and build a brand around his name. This involved risk, and several times he had to invest nearly all of his money, including taking money out against his mortgage. Despite the challenges, he persisted and eventually ended up expanding his brand into areas as diverse as clothing, mobile phones, Happy Meal toys at McDonald's, and even bedding and roller coasters.

Tony had some luck along the way, particularly when ESPN introduced the X Games (at the time called Extreme Games) and highlighted him as one of the stars. He also had ability. And don't forget persistence. At those X Games he was still trying to become the first person in history to land a 900 (a skateboard trick that involves two and one-half full rotations in the air). During his run he ran out of time after eight consecutive failed attempts. Yet he kept trying, even though his attempts would not count toward the official competition. On his twelfth attempt the world saw him pull off the first successful 900. Had he not persisted it would not have happened. He found a way to blend his ability, persistence, and passion into a successful trajectory, just as you will be able to do.

RUN YOUR RACE

Like Tony Hawk, to maximize your success you must allow your passion and enthusiasm to aid you along your journey. Paradoxically, though, you can have too much or too little enthusiasm. What you should strive for is reaching a state of balanced enthusiasm. This is difficult when you are driven only by extrinsic factors, but much easier to obtain when you pursue something with intrinsic intentions.

The Yerkes-Dodson Law in psychology can be used to help explain this phenomenon. Researchers Robert Yerkes and John Dodson found that mice were able to most quickly learn which door to enter when moderate levels of stimulus were administered after a mistake (in this case an electrical shock was given). If the strength of the shock was too low or too high it took longer for the mice to learn to correctly discriminate between the door with a shock and the one without a shock. When the learning curves were flipped upside down, an inverted U-shape relationship was revealed between performance and the level of stimuli present.

Applied to work, this reveals that the proper level of enthusiasm—but not misplaced or over-the-top enthusiasm—is necessary in order to ensure optimal performance. If your enthusiasm level is too low you may lose some ability to concentrate, lose confidence, or even be fearful of the activity at hand. In Figure 2-1 you can see that when there is no enthusiasm there is no performance. When this occurs, persistence wanes. On the other end of the spectrum there is again no performance if enthusiasm is too high. This can occur because your decision making and reasoning become clouded and inhibit performance. In cases of extreme fear or panic a person's arousal is too high, which explains why people will often “freeze up” in certain situations. Similarly, doing something very basic may seem more difficult if you have a lot of pressure riding on the outcome. For example, professional golfers experience this when a two-foot putt is necessary to win a tournament. In that case the putt seems infinitely longer than it otherwise would.

Figure 2-1: Yerkes-Dodson Law

You must therefore seek to find that optimal or balanced level of enthusiasm. Your performance will suffer when it is too high or too low. Even Tony Hawk realized that he had to move past some of his business ventures. Sure, he was enthusiastic about these but knew that he had to face reality and focus on ventures that had a greater chance of succeeding.

A note of caution is also in order related to this phenomenon. Enthusiasm and persistence are complementary, but you should not confuse the two. Enthusiasm is great, and can build excitement, but it has a much shorter shelf life than does persistence. Fans at a football game may be very enthusiastic, but it's hard to say they are persistent. The players, by contrast, must be persistent. Talent alone does not get most players to the National Football League. Players may not be enthusiastic about waking up at 5 a.m. to lift weights, but they persist in doing so. And doing so consistently over time is what differentiates them from hundreds of thousands of other athletes who had the same dream.

This is particularly true for complex tasks. When you are doing something that you are very familiar with—riding a bike, for example—you will likely not crash even if you are very excited. With a new or complex task, however, it is more important that you have the right level of arousal. Have you ever found yourself not able to sleep because your mind would not stop racing? Imagine trying to concentrate on learning a new activity or trying to memorize something with that same racing mind. It would be very difficult to do so. The right level of focus and concentration is necessary to make it easier for you to learn and build out new skills. If you have too little energy and enthusiasm you will fall somewhere to the left of the dotted line in Figure 2-1. If you have too much you will fall somewhere to the right. In both of these instances you will learn and do less than what you will be able to if you remain at your optimal level.

Marathon runners are a competitive group, and I have never met a marathoner who did not have a goal for the race. For some it is just to finish. For others it is to finish without stopping. For yet others it is to beat a certain time or even to win. If you have ever watched a marathon you might have been surprised at the number of people who were walking before the second mile or even during the first. Surely they had trained and were prepared to run farther without stopping. The Yerkes-Dodson Law can be used to explain why this happens to runners who are so physically well trained.

At the beginning of each race hundreds and often thousands of people take off at one time, all with the same overarching goal: to finish the race in the best time possible. During the start, superfluous enthusiasm and competitive comparison with nearby runners can overtake persistence, which leads to a devastating outcome. Instead of sticking with a plan and persisting with it for the full race, runners will get caught up with the pace of others who are faster and mistakenly try to keep up. As someone who has participated in a marathon, I can attest firsthand to how many people are “gassed” after less than a mile and are soon left walking because they tried to run too fast out of the gate. This aligns with what is expected from the Yerkes-Dodson Law. At the beginning of the race those runners with over-the-top enthusiasm started too fast and were left with diminished performance against their original expectations. In the Yerkes-Dodson model they fall to the right of the dotted line.

Keeping this principle in mind will enable you to “run your race” at work. If you have a plan, be cautious if you decide to abruptly deviate from it and extend yourself into an area in which you are not likely to succeed. In race terms, you may be able to run a few seven-minute miles, but if you trained and were prepared to run nine-minute miles, no amount of persistence will compensate. At work, then, strategically deviate from your race when opportunities arise, but be sure to remember what it is you are trying to accomplish.

GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY

According to the results from an annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA), the number one barrier to success that people report is willpower. Yet 71 percent of the same respondents felt this was something they could learn to improve and do better. Turned another way, nearly three-quarters of people think they can control the one area that they feel is the biggest obstacle preventing them from reaching their goals. This takes us back to the performance equation. You cannot entirely change your ability, but you have much more control of your willpower and how strongly you persist toward your goals.

If you believe you can reach something and persist toward it, you will have an advantage over the 71 percent of the people who believe that this is what is preventing them from achieving their goals. It could be something as basic as losing weight, or it could be something as complex as revolutionizing an industry. Both of these are less likely without persistence. All meaningful accomplishments are less likely without persistence.

At the same time you need to be pragmatic and wise in your pursuits. Persistence is an important and admirable trait. Blind persistence, however, is not. You must be realistic with those things that you seek to accomplish. No amount of persistence is going to make you golf as well as Tiger Woods or play basketball like LeBron James. Regardless of how persistent you are, you will not be able to jump over a river that is thirty feet wide. But if you take a step back and reconsider your goal—in this case, to get to the other side—you can devise a new plan. In doing so you persist in gathering the materials necessary to build a bridge to the other side and reach your goal. The point is that persistence necessitates reevaluation. Without rethinking your strategy and approach you may be persisting in a fruitless endeavor. What you can do is be as good as possible against the standard you set for yourself as you reach for your trajectory.

Persistence also requires preparation. The Roman philosopher Seneca, who lived more than 2,000 years ago, is credited with saying, “Luck is where the crossroads of opportunity and preparation meet.” Despite the passage of time and the exponentially more complex world in which we live and work, this reasoning still applies. When opportunity arises you will become your own enemy if you have not prepared for it in advance. If you want something you must treat it as an eventuality. You must believe that it will happen. And when it does you must enter the situation knowing that you have done everything within your power to seize that moment, which will leave you in a state or readiness when it occurs. Doing this will give you comfort, knowing you have left no effort or regrets behind.

RANGE RESTRICTION

Most companies have hiring processes that in some way attempt to identify the top candidates for open positions so that they can choose the people most likely to be successful. Assuming you and others have gone through a similar hiring process, you will be in a work environment that is impacted by what statisticians refer to as range restriction. When range restriction occurs, there is less variability on some known factor(s). If this factor happens to be ability, you and others at work will be similar on the first half of the performance equation we discussed earlier in this chapter. This means that you must focus on ensuring that you have the necessary differentiating persistence to enable you to stand out from and outperform the others. Whereas they may give up, you must persist—even if just slightly more—to achieve even greater things.

Research in the business world strongly supports the assertion that persistence is a desirable—and differentiating—characteristic of successful leaders. Steven Kaplan of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business sought to test this proposition using data from more than 300 candidates for CEO roles in private equity and venture capitalist firms. The candidates were all assessed on five primary areas: leadership, personal, intellectual, interpersonal, and persistence. What is unique about this study is that not only were the candidates assessed before they were hired, but the researchers were then able to use this information to help identify the characteristics most responsible for future success among the CEOs. Along with efficiency and being proactive, persistence was one of the three most important factors in determining the performance of the CEOs and their companies. This shows us that even at the highest levels of an organization—where most everyone likely has above-average ability—persistence emerges as the differentiating factor in determining success.

You may ask, What about the importance of persistence if you are not a CEO? It still applies. If we go to the other end of the spectrum we find the same thing with children. In How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Paul Tough discusses what leads children to succeed over time. One of the essential elements he uncovered was persistence, which can be a core part of each person's character. What's important to note is that ability (intelligence) is somewhat predetermined. Nutrition, health, and other factors can help, but there is only so much of an opportunity to change this somewhat innate factor once you reach adulthood. Persistence, remember, is much more under your control.

This is of particular relevance when you consider the many differences in our backgrounds and childhoods. On the one hand, consider an individual from a broken family with a low income. She may have a more difficult path and trajectory to achieve success, but can do so given ability and persistence. On the other hand, consider someone from a family of considerable wealth and prestige. He will have great opportunities and access to resources that should make success easier. Yet despite great ability this person does not amount to much. Why? Because he took things for granted and chose not to persist with his self-improvement. Whether it is children, CEOs, or you, persistence matters, and it matters all the time.

PATIENT URGENCY

Persistence includes an element of time, and therefore one of its essential attributes is patience. Without patience you cannot embody persistence. These intertwined attributes can ensure that you do not do too much too quickly as you progress through your charted trajectory. Unfortunately blind persistence results in patience going out the window. Companies that experience early success often become too enamored with growth and then become numb to caution and patience.

Take Boston Market, which at one point was one of the fastest-growing food chains in the United States. It had its eye on a great amount of growth and put together a plan for rapid expansion. The growth strategy quickly became a doomed proposition because Boston Market did not seek out persistent but patient growth. Instead of focusing on the right rate of growth, it focused on rapid growth. At its peak Boston Market had more than 900 restaurants. It then went through bankruptcy and had to close nearly 200 stores after it had overexpanded. The main problem was that the leaders of the company were so focused on growth that they overlooked sound business principles such as developing good leaders and building community relationships. They lost sight of the building blocks and practices that had made the organization successful in the beginning. With your career you must not make the mistake of losing the essence of who you are and what you have sought to accomplish.

In-N-Out Burger, which was recently named by Consumer Reports as the best fast-food restaurant chain in the United States, has taken the opposite approach to growth. Its founders knew early on that rapid growth could be damaging to the chain. They instead decided to be patient but persistent with their growth. The chain's founder, Harry Snyder, resisted the temptation to take the company public or to expand using a franchise model. By deliberately choosing to maintain only company-managed restaurants, In-N-Out Burger took a different approach than did most fast-food chains. When pressure for growth is high, franchising provides a way to quickly generate revenue. While doing this can increase revenue in the short term, it results in lessened control of operations and can create greater risk in the long term. In adopting a franchise model the trajectory of the chain becomes less under leadership's control. As you plot your own trajectory you too should be careful to not give up control in areas that are important to you. You might experience a short-term gain, but the purpose of plotting your trajectory is to put in place a plan for sustained performance.

Comparing the different strategies taken by Boston Market and In-N-Out Burger reveals something inherently important about patience: Patience does not mean laziness or lack of urgency. It does, however, mean that you can strategically wait for the right opportunities. In-N-Out Burger focused on the right growth and ensuring that it had the capability for growth. For example, the company made a conscious decision to never expand faster than it had talent available to fill restaurant manager roles. In doing so it realized that persistence and patience would in the long run provide a more stable organization. Whether it is building your own skills or making decisions for an entire organization, you can learn from these examples in order to avoid making the same mistakes.

Being patient does not mean you should take your time and wait for things to come to you. It's just the opposite. You still need to have a sense of urgency about what you do. It is just that if you are impatient a host of negative outcomes can follow. For example, impatience is associated with expressing feelings of negativity, cynicism, and even disdain for others and their decision-making processes. By expressing a sense of patient urgency you will convey to others the importance of what you are doing. If you become unduly impatient you also run the risk of being perceived by others as unreasonable, bossy, and even selfish. When this occurs you are apt to lose support from others, which could be a great detriment to your career, as such support is often critical to obtaining success in any endeavor.

LEARNING FROM NAVY SEALS

A river shows great persistence over time as the water flows and continues to carve out a path. As time passes, this path can widen and become magnificent, but it does not happen overnight. Emulate a river with your persistence and seek out the path that is right for you and your goals. Doing this in order to stay on your trajectory will not always be easy, because we all encounter obstacles. As Ben Saunders learned (see “Getting Started” at the beginning of this book), headwinds may slow you down, but you must not let that resistance stop you from dreaming big and working toward achieving your goals. Persistence is what will allow you to reach the top, even while others become frustrated and decide to give up.

In Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell describes the grueling process people go through to become Navy SEALs. The SEALs are world renowned for their diverse skills and ability to withstand extreme situations and conditions. They explicitly call out the importance of perseverance and include this statement in their credo: “I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time.” Many people may think that Navy SEALs are selected based on their physical prowess. This is partially true. However, what really differentiates them is their persistence and mental fortitude.

The ability to persist through nearly intolerable exercises is what really matters. Luttrell recalls that many of the strongest and most ferocious-looking candidates were often among the quickest to fail. Though they looked the part, they did not have the resilience necessary to make it through the program. During his Basic Underwater Demolition / SEALs (BUD/S) training 164 people were in his original cohort. Thirty-two made it through the trials. Luttrell states that he doesn't know how he made it through many parts, but credits willpower for keeping him going.

An examination of the Navy SEALs reveals that not only can you develop your persistence over time, but you can make it a core part of who you are. What they exemplify is positive effort. The boot camp instructors all know that those who have the drive and mental fortitude will put in the required effort to make it through the tests.

Jerry Rice, the all-time leading receiver in the NFL, also realized that persistence and effort were necessary to differentiate himself from others. He is similarly renowned for his grueling hill workouts, but he did not get there all at once. He got to the top of the hill step by step. And he continued the workouts during the offseason when so many other players were taking a break. He realized that if he could fight and persist against the hill during the offseason, he could do the same against his more tired opponents during the fourth quarter of a game.

At work you can follow the example of the Navy SEALs trials, Jerry Rice, and many other success stories. Your persistence can be what differentiates you from the other “best athletes” you are up against.

CONCLUSION

In many ways persistence can be tied back to Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare. In the fable Aesop says, “A Hare one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: ‘Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race.’…The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.” There are two lessons within this fable. The first applies to the hare, who quickly found that overconfidence—and underestimating your competition—is not a wise move. The second, relating to the tortoise, is that persistence can enable you to overcome great odds and challenges.

No one doubts for a second that a hare is faster than a tortoise, but let's put the Ability × Persistence = Performance equation against this fable. The hare had the ability (A = 9), but did not persist on a high level (P= 3). Although the tortoise had lesser ability (A = 3), it had extreme persistence (P = 10). Though it was extremely close, the tortoise won the race, just as the formula would predict (expected performance = 30 for the tortoise versus 27 for the hare).

Of course none of this should be construed to mean that you should not move quickly. As we will discuss in Lesson 3, you must. But you must also not burn out or move so quickly that, like the hare, you think you cannot lose. When, like the tortoise, you persist, you don't give up. You certainly should not give up when your goal is attainable and still desirable to you.

One of the greatest things about persistence is that it is not going away. It is not a fad. It is not a commodity whose value will decline. Persistence will continue to stand the test of time as a differentiating characteristic that the most successful people possess. Sporting goods companies are even trying to measure persistence in athletic endeavors. Under Armour has even released a product that is designed to assess the wearer's persistence when exercising: It's a watch that measures willpower using a mathematical algorithm that calculates a score between one and ten.

Whether during exercise, at work, in your personal life, or anywhere else, persistence has been and will continue to be one of the most important factors for you to consider when plotting and working to attain your trajectory.

And here is an exercise to complete before the next lesson.

EXERCISE

NOTES