I went out for a three-mile run the other day, and almost immediately I was looking for reasons to cut it short and take a hot shower.
It was windy and cold. Rain was coming down. My foot was hurting. Side stitches.
Then I got to thinking about Edison Peña.
He was the Chilean miner who was who was trapped for 69 days. Peña would take three to six mile underground jogs in the dark to kill time and stay sane.
He finished the New York Marathon this past Sunday on a busted knee.
Think of Edison Peña when you’re struggling with your project or company. He could have stopped at five miles, and everybody would have praised him. But he refused to quit.
This reminds me of the latest post from Rob Rammuny, “19 Entrepreneurs Reveal Why People Fail to Build a Profitable Business”.
I participated by answering…
My favorite insight about the line between success and failure came from a keynote address at Affiliate Summit East 2006 by Jim Bouton (former New York Yankee, best-selling author, and the inventor of Big League Chew):
‘I stumbled on to the secret of success, and that is persistence.
I just kept going out for the team anyway, even though I wasn’t successful.
Every summer out there playing ball. Persistence… persistence was the key.
You don’t have to be educated, you don’t have to be talented, you don’t have to be rich, you don’t have to be lucky – it’s available to anyone.
I’m convinced most people don’t fail, they simply stop trying.’
I love that ending. If you want to make your breaks and be your own boss, you need to keep trying.