Think and Grow Rich - Chapter 9

Principle 1: Persistence 

This is a principle that should be adopted for life by everyone. As Napoleon rightly observed, defeats will come. Every individual will experience failure at some point but the important thing is to be persistent. Persistent in keep trying until you win. Until you achieve what you want. Through failure, one will be able to learn from his/hers failure and mistake, which would afterwards result in making a better decision next time. Remember the discussion in a previous blog post, where it was stated that Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before making the first light bulb. The inventor Dyson made 5000 prototypes before making the first vacuum cleaner and Michael Jordan admitted that he missed more than 9000 shots in his career. Yet, he is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. 

As the great Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill once said, 'Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm'. Additionally, actor Will Smith firmly believes in the idea of failing frequently, failing early and failing forward. 

Napoleon rightly acknowledges the power of habit, and thence, if you quit once, it becomes a habit. When it becomes a habit then, it becomes easier to allow yourself to quit. Something which Inky Johnson calls, 'Sweat Equity'. 

Notably, Aristotle recognised that,‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’

In conclusion, perfect harmony with your goal in conjunction with persistence, will result in the Universe delivering on your wish. Accordingly, Alexander Graham Bell famously said, “What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.” Through my interpretation of this passage, it appears that Graham Bell explicitly wanted to assure that if you remain persistent and persevere, you shall have what you seek.