The Power of Persistence and Patience

Can enduring success be accomplished without persistence and patience? The answer is ‘No!’

Persistence and patience go hand in hand. You cannot achieve true success with one without the other. They are what I call essential ingredients in the formulation that gives birth to success.


One of the dictionaries I consulted provided this meaning for persistence: ‘to be obstinately repetitious, insistent, or tenacious. To hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks.’

Read that again! Can you see how powerful a tool persistence is in the hands of anyone who desires to succeed? To hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks!

Can you imagine anyone making it without these attributes?

I’ll answer that question by telling you a story. Seven years into starting our publishing business, we were yet to get out of the woods. Things were getting more difficult by the day. As a matter of fact, we were facing bankruptcy.

The bank we were owing got tired of our unfulfilled promises and set a deadline for us to pay up or got wound up. We couldn’t pay when the deadline expired. And they sent along their receiver manager.

When the man discovered that apart from our staff we didn’t have much left except for furniture which would only fetch an insignificant fraction of what we were owing, he realized that he had come to a dead end.

Our case was hopeless from what he could see. But persistence [some prefer to call it perseverance] was my second nature. So I pleaded for more time. The bank had no choice. So they let us be.

And from that hopeless situation, God stepped into our affairs and things began to turn around dramatically.

For the first time since we went into business we had a breakthrough. But look at how close we were to going under! Persistence saw us through.

Now, persistence is of no use without patience. If you’re persisting on something and you do not have patience, your efforts will be sabotaged by lack of patience.

A dictionary defines patience as ‘The capacity to endure hardship, difficulty, or inconvenience without complaint. Patience emphasizes calmness, self-control, and the willingness or ability to tolerate delay.’

If you read that definition carefully again, you’ll discover that your chances of succeeding, no matter how strongly you persist in an endeavor, is almost nil.

Patience is a strong factor in the achievement of success. I should know. I’ve been through some really tough times. But each time I’m passing through those difficult times, I realize that I’ve got to be patient; that I just have to hang in there.

It was not always easy. But I’ve come out tops again and again. And that is precisely what I commend to you: be persistent and be patient. The result is always worth the sacrifice.

And, in any case, you won’t achieve success without these two qualities. So why don’t you just master them and enjoy the rich rewards? You’ll be glad if you do.