Page 94 - MSC-Corporate Speaking

8
THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE “Spectacular performance is always preceded by unspectacular
preparation.”– John C. Maxwell
John Maxwell often says, “No one is any good at anything the first time.” “Write your first book,” he says, “Get it out the way, because it won’t be any good. Then you can get on to your second book. Don’t get your hopes up though, that one won’t be any good either!”
“But by the time you’ve written five or six, then you start to get good as an author. You won’t make any money though! No, money didn’t come for me,” he’ll tell you, “until book number nine!”
It’s interesting to listen to someone as accomplished as John is as an author, tell us about their journey of pain, frustration and disappointment. But that’s pretty much the way we learn everything, isn’t it?
If you want to get good at something, then you need to keep doing it. The more you do it, then the better you almost always get.
There are very few exceptions to this. And most of the exceptions cease to be exceptions if the persistence is coupled with better knowledge and understanding.
George Bernard Shaw summed it up beautifully when he said:
© 2018