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 This installment will cover the 4th step in the Success formula.  Please return to the site next week for the 4th Step! 

Success at Sidekicks

Step Four:  Persistence

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”  Aristotle

Achieving true success is challenging not just because of its inherent difficulty, but also because of its unpredictability.  For example, quitting smoking usually takes several failed attempts before “it sticks.”  Success is difficult to predict or forecast, and therefore requires persistence in the face of uncertainty.When I started competing in Olympic Tae Kwon Do,  Grand Master Chung told me that you have to lose 10 times before you win.  I did not want to hear anything about losing.  All I was concerned with was how to win.  When I won a fight, I didn’t learn anything.  When I lost, I did a complete examination of myself, my training routine and re-dedicated myself to getting better.  If I gave up after a loss, then I would never have improved.  This is what Grand Master Chung meant; by being persistent you become a winner.  Successful people do not give up and they work hard. It’s easy to underestimate the importance of Persistence.  It isn’t “sexy”.  It isn’t glamorous.  You might go into the wilderness for a dramatic, life-altering Vision quest, but nobody goes into the wilderness on a Persistence quest.  Persistence is characterized by repetition, plowing ahead, and toiling away.  And as the tenets of Tae Kwon do state; Persistence is perseverance and continuing to attempt to achieve a goal in spite of obstacles.