I am writing this on New Year’s weekend. I know you won’t read this until February, but at this moment, the onset of a new year seems more daunting than in the past. A discussion around the family dinner table was centered on New Year’s resolutions. Maybe it was just me, but there didn’t seem to be the same level of confidence and enthusiasm for the topic as in past years.
Perhaps it is what we have all been through in the last year or two. I know, for me, the thought of another 12 months of economic turmoil – and all the side effects generated from it – has me less than excited to get started again. I think back on all that we as a company and an industry have endured, and are still going through, and I sometimes feel very tired.
Being the optimist that I am, however, I search for an answer – what will it take to get through this? I land on one word: perseverance.
As defined: “a steady and continued action and belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks.” I’d say that pretty much sums up exactly what we need right now.
We are an industry of primarily small businesses in a part of the economy that has been hit hard. But we are smart people. We work hard for our companies and our clients. We have had to make some very tough decisions in order to stay viable. And I suspect there are more tough decisions in our future. Given all of that, it seems that what we now must add to the mix is perseverance, “a steady and continued action.” We’ve got to keep after it and keep working on it.
But there is one other word in the definition that we shouldn’t overlook: belief. All the action in the world won’t help if we don’t believe we can survive and succeed. Belief is what will continue to spawn the ideas and direct the action.
But don’t just take it from me. I’ve collected below a sampling of what others have to say about perseverance. Perhaps one of these will spark your enthusiasm for another year. It did for me.
George Bernard Shaw:
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”
Charles F. Kettering:
“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.”
Newt Gingrich:
“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”
Dale Carnegie:
“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
“Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain,” by an unknown author.
Franklin D. Roosevelt:
“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
Josh Billings:
“Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there.”
Author unknown:
“The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11, the Bible:
“The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.”
Albert Einstein:
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
William James:
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”
Thomas Foxwell Buxton:
“With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.”
William Feather:
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”
John Wooden:
“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”
Calvin Coolidge:
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Winston Churchill:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower:
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Robert Strauss:
“It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.”
Let’s keep wrestling until this economic gorilla is worn out.
See you on the show floor.
Jim Obermeyer has been in the tradeshow industry 28 years, both as a corporate trade show manager and exhibit house executive. He is a partner in the trade show and event marketing firm Reveal. He can be reached at jobermeyer@revealexhibits.com.
