Defining Perserverance
To put it simply, perseverance is never, never , never, never, never giving up pursuing your goal. We all have our favorite stories about people whose perseverance blazed the trail for success. One of my favorite is the story of the famous rapper now actor LL Cool J.
When Todd (his real name) was about 15 years old, hip hop music was already in his system. He wrote more rhymes and music than he ever worked on his homework. By that time he went to every record stores and wrote down the labels of every rap record they had. He then sent out his demo tapes to each label- CBS, Sugar Hill, Island, Tommy Boy Electra, Profile, Enjoy etc.
Two weeks later he received so many rejection letters from the record companies. He received enough letters to start a really good fire . He felt like crying but stifled his emotions. Something deep inside him, made him not give up and keep sending those tapes. He knew he was good so he persevered. One day, his mother bought him a 600 dollar drum machine to somehow improve the sound quality of his demo tapes, so he started sending them out again.
His last shot was to send out the tape to Rick Rubin , at that time was still a student but already producing records. Todd didn’t wait for Rick to call him instead he called and followed up about his demo tape. He called Rick everyday. Little did Todd know that his tape was sitting in his dorm room in a big box of tapes with hundreds of wanna-be rappers. Maybe it was just luck or serendipity, that a friend of Rick, was hanging out in his dorm room and just randomly pulled out Todd’s tape from the stacks of tapes and listened to it and liked it. That got Rick’s attention and immediately phoned Todd. That was when Todd got his hard won break. Thus LL COOL J was born and groomed for hip hop stardom.
Whenever you think of successful people whether Hollywood stars, explorers, inventors, entrepreneurs etc. you can be sure they acquired persistence and perseverance first before they accumulated the money and praises.
You can develop perseverance if you know your definite purpose, perpetually backed by enthusiastic efforts .As they say in today’s language be PROACTIVE.
The only break you can afford to depend on, is the break you yourself can make. Just like LL Cool J. His self made break was when he made those demo tapes and the effort of sending them out, following up and being persistent and persevered amidst seeming rejections, but finally, finally muddled through.
So create your own self made break. Persevere until Success happens.
When Todd (his real name) was about 15 years old, hip hop music was already in his system. He wrote more rhymes and music than he ever worked on his homework. By that time he went to every record stores and wrote down the labels of every rap record they had. He then sent out his demo tapes to each label- CBS, Sugar Hill, Island, Tommy Boy Electra, Profile, Enjoy etc.
Two weeks later he received so many rejection letters from the record companies. He received enough letters to start a really good fire . He felt like crying but stifled his emotions. Something deep inside him, made him not give up and keep sending those tapes. He knew he was good so he persevered. One day, his mother bought him a 600 dollar drum machine to somehow improve the sound quality of his demo tapes, so he started sending them out again.
His last shot was to send out the tape to Rick Rubin , at that time was still a student but already producing records. Todd didn’t wait for Rick to call him instead he called and followed up about his demo tape. He called Rick everyday. Little did Todd know that his tape was sitting in his dorm room in a big box of tapes with hundreds of wanna-be rappers. Maybe it was just luck or serendipity, that a friend of Rick, was hanging out in his dorm room and just randomly pulled out Todd’s tape from the stacks of tapes and listened to it and liked it. That got Rick’s attention and immediately phoned Todd. That was when Todd got his hard won break. Thus LL COOL J was born and groomed for hip hop stardom.
Whenever you think of successful people whether Hollywood stars, explorers, inventors, entrepreneurs etc. you can be sure they acquired persistence and perseverance first before they accumulated the money and praises.
You can develop perseverance if you know your definite purpose, perpetually backed by enthusiastic efforts .As they say in today’s language be PROACTIVE.
The only break you can afford to depend on, is the break you yourself can make. Just like LL Cool J. His self made break was when he made those demo tapes and the effort of sending them out, following up and being persistent and persevered amidst seeming rejections, but finally, finally muddled through.
So create your own self made break. Persevere until Success happens.
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