Perseverance And Success

On September 20, 2007, Forbes Magazine released the latest list of the richest people in the world. At the very top of the list was unchanged, Bill Gates (Microsoft Corp.) who led the list for the 14^th straight years, this time with a net worth estimated at $59 billion.

In the top 100 of the list, there were 5 names who are under 40 years of age, i.e: Sergey Brin (33), Larry Page (34), Oleg Deripaska (39), Pierre Omidyar (39), and Kumar Birla (39). Sergey Brin and Larry Page are the founders of Google.com. Oleg Deripaska is the chairman of Russian aluminium industry company. Pierre Omidyar is the founder of Ebay auction site. And Kumar Birla is the chairman of several blue chip companies in India.

Their net worth is estimated between $8 billion up to $16,6 billion. And as I notice, Bill Gates was in his 37 when he first enlisted in the first rank at Forbes.

We are living in a time where everything can be achieved at a speed that was unimaginable 20 years ago. As stated in www.forbes.com, “A billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. For the first time, it takes more than $1 billion earn a spot on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans. The minimum net worth for inclusion in this year's rankings was $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year.”

It would be nice if yours and my name was enlisted in Forbes in the next several years, don’t you agree? Everyone would love to have a large amount of money, with time and freedom to share with people we love, and doing things we love to do without worrying about anything anymore. Hmm… how nice will it be …? Hey… wake up! :-)

Nowdays, there are many seminars, training courses, and internet coaching programmes which claim that they can show you how to get rich in a very short time and in a very easy way. Many people join multi-level marketing programmes so that they can earn easy money in a very short time.

I am not saying that these seminars, training courses and programmes are not good. They show us ideas, ways and strategies for us to perform better and achieve more. But if we think it would be “that easy”, then our mindset is wrong! Harve Ecker said, "You can have the greatest business strategies in the world but if you don't have the mindset to go along with them you won't use them."

I believe that there is nothing in this world that is called “instant success”. We often look at successful people in their present situation. But do we know the process they have to get through to get to the present situation? Everything is a process, and all we have to do is to do our best in everything we do. And trying to do it better each time we do it. In order to perform better, we need to practice. As Colin Powell said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” The genius Thomas Alva Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Many people complain about their current situation, and want to become somebody else. They wish to have instant success, but forget their current duties and responsibilities. They procrastinate and then make excuses if they fail to achieve their sales target. “A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job,” said Zig Ziglar.

There is a great quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”

So, let’s get back to our job. Do our best and keep trying to do it better each time we do it. Try to learn something new each time every day. Reach our peak performance everyday in everything we do. Make it a masterpiece in our life, which we proud of and not regret.

This is the word "perseverance" mean to me. I believe that, “He who perseveres to be, will be”