Perseverance is a cornerstone to all business success; in its absence, many new business owners strike out before getting a chance to hit that cherished home run. Success is determined by your drive to succeed, how hard you’re willing to work to get what you want, and having the patience and endurance to stick with your vision until it either bears fruit or proves to be a bad idea.
Perseverance is never easy. The way never seems to be straight forward or clear. It’s up to each entrepreneur to know whether to hold or fold.
It’s not surprising that many owners cut and run just short of success. The path to business success is littered with traps, including disgruntled customers, cash flow shortfalls, burnout, economic downturns, failed partnerships, plain old bad business ideas, and unworkable business models. These are just a few of the demons faced by business owners as they run the gauntlet.
Business killers can beat an entrepreneur down, opening the dark door to a business failure. Most issues can be remedied, and most failing businesses can be turned around if the owner has the vision and the drive to stay the course.
As always, it’s easy to look at bad situations and shout out remedies, but for those mired in a business, the view can be blurred and it’s sometimes harder to see solutions.
For the average working person, economic survival is always a driver; lack of money is easily a top reason to jump ship. Family problems trigger a number of other business failures. Debauchery, overspending, plain old laziness—there’s never a shortage of reasons to stray from your business plan. Only the entrepreneur in charge can identify what’s truly most important and therefore the right path for him or her to follow.
In The Dip, A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick), Seth Godin writes about how those who aspire to become the best must stay focused and go through incredible hardship to reach their goal. He also speaks to the importance of dropping the losers, having the courage to discontinue projects or directions that prove to be duds. This puts pressure on those who tackle long-term goals or aspire to any sort of greatness, because the critic within you will always question whether you’re headed for success or setting yourself up to look like an idiot.
So, how much perseverance is enough? That is something each business owner must decide for himself. Small business owners, particularly start-ups, walk this tightrope every day in the life of the enterprise.