Finish What You Start – Part II

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

One of the virtues I love the most is the virtue of persistence.  Americans would refer to it as grit.  What I love about this virtue is that it gets things done and it gives a lot of hope (another favorite virtue).   What separates the successful people from the unsuccessful ones is this virtue.  Many would start well but give up easily when the going gets tough.  The quitters don’t even just give up because they’ve encountered a big obstacle or problem but just quit because the regular grind of the activity is boring and the expected results are not there right away.

A famous case of this is the one John Maxwell (author of many best-selling leadership books) would often mention in his books when he talks about this virtue.   John would go to a fitness gym regularly but one time it was January he was dismayed to arrive that he could not park his car because the parking lot was full.  It took him 30 minutes to wait for a parking lot to get vacated.  He said when he entered the gym, he saw a throng of eagerly exercising and sweating like mad individuals.  He walked to the front desk and complained, “My gosh, there are so many people here!  First of all, I could not park.  Second, there are three people waiting in line in front of each treadmill.  You need to make the gym bigger and put more exercise machines.”  The girl behind the desk just smiled and said, “Sir, just come back next month and it won’t be a problem.”  John said by February he was able to park his car close to the entrance and the gym was deserted.  The New Year’s resolution of those people to exercise and lose weight lasted only a month.

Another staggering statistic about exercising is that 97 percent of exercise machines won’t be used anymore three months after they have been purchased.  There was even a guy mentioned by Bo Sanchez in one of his books who built a swimming pool in his house worth millions because the owner made a resolution to do 50 laps every day.  But after some time when the swimming pool was made, Bo met and asked him when was the last time he did his “lapping”, he said it was 12 months ago.

The enemy of persistence is impatience.  We are used to the “instant mentality”.  We have instant coffee, instant noodles, and order food and other items on-line delivered in a few minutes.  But the important things in life is not a sprint but a marathon.  Marriage is not a sprint but a marathon.  It takes time to build a loving, and caring, successful marriage.  Starting a business is not a sprint but a marathon.  It usually takes two years for a start-up business to start earning.  The same goes with building your financial investment, exercising and going on a diet, and finishing college.  Another shocking statistic in the Philippines is that only 14 people would graduate in college out of 100 who started going to primary school.  No wonder we have many out-of-school youths.  Schooling in the Philippines is not a financial problem but a persistence problem.  The message is loud and clear.  If you want to be successful in life don’t give up and finish what you’ve started, and do whatever it takes.