The following is a collection of stories of how perseverance has helped people succeed.
As we know, to reach any form of success, you need to never ever give up. No matter what challenge you are face.
As you read through these stories, you will read about emotional, physical and just plain bad luck. Bad luck, is just sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
On the other hand, it was once said, the harder I try, the luckier I become.
Click here to find the original question and answer on LinkedIn Answers
The Success Stories series provides case studies from people about what it takes to become successful. Each of us is unique in our goals and aspirations, but we have things in common with others. Through the 10,000,000 people in my LinkedIn network we can share ideas and solutions that will help you achieve your goals. While I don’t always agree with all the comments I receive, I include all that are presented coherently and could help at least one of my readers.
The questions have been slightly edited for grammar and presentation. Comments and Kudos, while always appreciated, have been edited out.
User Services Coordinator/Manager, High Performance Computing
I work for the
I have always worked while attending school and feel that it is helped me become more productive. As of my sophomore year at TAMUCC I was working as a full time computer technician managing student workers and repairing personal computers. At this time I married my high school sweetheart whom had just started school at TAMUCC. We had met each other in the high school orchestra.
Around April of 2001 I was diagnosed with a rare and dangerous cancer called a sarcoma which formed painlessly in my leg. Sarcoma is a cancer of the soft tissue which comprises less than 1% of all cancers. My particular type of sarcoma is among the more rare sarcomas which may include up to a hundred cases per year worldwide.
I took an extended period of leave from my position at A&M and withdrew from classes to manage my health, which included six months of high-dosage chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the Md Anderson Cancer Center in
After my treatments ended I returned to my job at A&M and reentered classes. In some ways I felt the return to normalcy harder than being a cancer patient. I was frustrated for several months while using crutches and a wheel chair to get around campus while learning to walk again.
Several months previously while I was sitting in the hospital at MDACC I had stumbled across a copy of the Scientific American which highlighted the new fad in high performance computing: clusters. I was intrigued and fascinated about this and ‘borrowed’ the magazine to show one of my favourite professors. They had agreed that this would be an excellent project to start at A&M.
Using my position as a technician I was able to acquire an entire room of retired laboratory computers from surplus and was able to cajole space out of the college. For the next year I spent my days working, fiddling in the lab with trusted friends, and class. My skills as a computer technician were invaluable in this project to get the machine working, as well as my connections in the university to network with many departments it took to get the center founded. Eventually my professor was able to draft a grant proposal to fund real equipment and salary so that I could quit my job as a technician to work on the cluster full time.
As the full time manager of the cluster office I found myself doing more work networking with campus staff and faculty than cluster maintenance. I maintained a trusted relationship with several students that had been with us from the beginning which were now employed as my staff. As the grant drew to a close our professor had left the university to seek new challenges and we new that the center was ahead of its time for the campus. The center still remains today, but I moved on to larger challenges.
CEO and Managing Director at Excel Capital Ventures
One of the best stories of perseverance that I have personally experienced in my career was the pursuit of GE as a customer for IT outsourcing or the company I work for, Birlasoft. We were a small unknown entity and were pitted against various IT majors. We were brushed off in the beginning with harsh statements like you don’t bring any value to us, don’t waste your time etc. We persevered and built a relationship by demonstrating value in their hard to serve areas over a 2 year period which ultimately resulted in Birlasoft becoming a GE Global Development Center and in the 5 years in this capacity getting services revenue of close to 500 Million.
Perseverance does pay – particularly in sales.
Owner, K&K Technologies Inc. and Information Services Consultant
In Feb 2007 I started to experience loss of sensation in my left arm. Very quickly this spread to other parts of my body and soon I was unable to use my left arm and hand (my dominant hand is left). I got lucky, and on my second visit to the hospital I got a doctor who gave this some thought and suggested that this may be a mild case of MS.
This got the ball rolling for my MRI which showed scars on my brain and nerves (at the base of the skull) and a visit with a clinic that specializes in MS. By the time I visited the clinic at the end of Mar 2007 the loss of control had progressed to my right hand and arm and I was to the point where I needed help with some basic things like eating. They gave me medication to help stop the attack I was experiencing and (as if by miracle) I started to get better.
By the end of April I had recovered the use of my arm and hand (I was about 90% for where I was before). However, I still had this soft symptom of fatigue where I was unable to go for more than a few hours prior to the need for sleep. So I was sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night and another 2 to 4 hours during the day. Like my children, I got to start taking naps again.
In July 2007, I started to experience new symptoms again. Another MRI was taken. This time it showed no new scars. This on and off of mild symptoms lasted through August. In September I experienced a turn for the worse. I lost the ability to keep my balance (had to crawl from place to place, kind of an interesting experience on its own, my 3 year old son thought it was the greatest thing – although he was concerned) During my visit to the MS clinic in September they doctor determined that this is another attack and gave me the same treatment.
The treatment started well; however, a bit of the way through I started to experience more severe active symptoms (I am told this is normal) and here I am today with some active symptoms (I periodically lose control on my hands and arms, and the ability to control the front face muscles so I cannot focus my vision and have some problems speaking) but it appears things are getting better. The greatest benefit from getting this treatment the second time around is that the fatigue has disappeared and I can stay up all day again. I love this.
So, how is this related to perseverance?
Well, I am a self-employed software consultant. If I don’t do the work for my clients, the work does not get done. Not being able to stay awake or type is a bit of a problem in delivering my work to my clients.
I am amazed and I marvel at how understanding and helpful all of my clients were. Every one of my clients were very understanding of my condition and they were willing to live with waiting for their work. I think that it is only at times like this do you truly get to see the true nature of a person. I was amazed that everyone around me that I work with is a saint in disguise.
Now, I did not really lose my spirit through this ordeal. My non-negative reaction was sometimes referred to as a being nihilistic. This could be the case, but I do not believe it to be so.
I more believe that good and bad are perceptions we place on situations that occur in our life.
Ok. So how this has helped me is that prior to the incident I was down and depressed about my job. I was bored and restless. I did not think it was the right thing for me and the I felt that every day of my life was just wasting away.
Today, I feel energized invigorated and happy towards my job. I can see all the good I am doing for people and how I can make my work more challenging and fun. I actually enjoy going to work in the morning and walk down the stairs to my office with a little hop in my step.
- http://www.naute.com/inspiration/luck.phtml
Energy expert, educator, award winning sculptor
I have been an adjunct assistant professor in the
After 5 years, we have one degree program on the books, and are finally focusing resources to structure, with industry support, a Center for Energy Studies.
Over these past 5 years I have invested an unknown amount of hours, in addition to my normal responsibilities to make contacts identify resources and establish partners. We now have 10 students in the program this year and will be rolling out a comprehensive recruitment plan for the program.
I won’t say the need for perseverance is complete, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I do not think it is a train.
Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge for breakthrough results
My greatest challenge and lesson began on my 40th birthday when I fell from the mountain of success to what seemed like a very dark valley. My birthday that represented a giant fork or rut in the road of my personal life and my career. It was a time when the gold I had created by the sweat of my brow had turned to dust.
My birthday came to pass far, far away from the success, achievement and material comforts I had worked so hard to acquire. Far, far away from my former career as CEO of a successful multi-million dollar company, and the accoutrements of success I had taken for granted.
I spent my 40th birthday cleaning toilets, grateful that my children and I were healthy and safe. Happy to work as fast and as hard as I could to clean the last toilet, so the I could share birthday cake with my children.
I had faced a life crucible, an event of nightmarish proportion that took me from the mountain of success to ground zero where I had to start my life again.
But, it was at ground zero that I learned a secret. Inevitably, whether by old age or a twist of fate…all the glitters is never gold.
The greatest power we hold is not in what we have, but in who we truly are, and in what we have the power to become and create.
The worst life crucible; the cruelest of treatment, abuse, humiliation, the greatest of failures, the pain of dealing with a threatening illness, or a personal stumbling block cannot steal the faith, hope, courage, potential and determination that burns inside us, unless we let it.
The pilot light that connects us with our higher power, the candle that can help us heal, restore and rebuild our greatest advantage and potential can be found and it can be re-engaged and re-ignited.
Because, it is our ability to see past what is, and create or re-create what can be, that determines our ability to drive our greatest intentions forward, and to reclaim our true power, passion, purpose, potential. It also presents us with a powerful opportunity to re-discover our joy.
It was in the valley that I learned to love and accept myself for who I was, rather than measuring my worth by what I had acquired or accomplished.
It was in the valley that I discovered how to use my strengths AND my stressors, my changes AND deepest challenges to build my greatest advantage and potential by developing 10 key competencies that helped me build high emotional intelligence, greater faith, optimism, creativity and personal power in the face of the most difficult obstacle, challenge and sorrow I had ever known.
The greatest strength, success and satisfaction will always come not from what we consume, command, control or acquire, but from what we contribute. And, we each have an important and special contribution to make. No matter how large or small, our contribution counts. It is important, because our contribution is the fire in our soul that illuminates our greatest passion, purpose and potential.
It is the fire of human passion, purpose, potential, faith, courage and dignity towards our fellow man that will help us realize our ability to build better selves, better lives, better organizations.
And, it is this fire that can help us rekindle our ability to contribute to a better world, in whatever large or small way we choose to.
It is our ability to USE our strengths, stressors changes and challenges to illuminate this fire that can and will take us farther than ever before. Because, when we find our truth, our unique contribution, we tap into our true passion, purpose and potential, and in so doing we light a fire in our soul and illuminate a new path to our best self, best work, best leadership…and our best life. And, in so doing we find our true power; and, we come home.
August 1998 I came home, and thankfully I have been there ever since.
Recruiter at Magellan Health Services
I can answer this from my professional and personal life.
I was a single mom for many years. When I re-married it was in Jan. 2002. Life was going surprisingly well considering I had been laid off from work (recruiter in staffing industry) as a result of 9/11. Then in May of the same year my husband’s job (Network Engineer with Honeywell) was out-sourced to IBM. I was a full-time student and he was out of work. In June 2002 I finished school and was re-hired with a former company and in July my husband was contracted with Amgen, things started looking up for us. Oct. 2002, I was taking my children to school when we were in a bad car accident. I was in physical therapy for 4 months three days a week and my two children were experiencing post traumatic stress. The following month my son started experiencing neck pain so bad he couldn’t move his neck without screaming in pain. December after many trips to LA Children’s, MRI’s, bone scans, x-rays he was diagnosed with a very rare blood disease which caused a tumor on his neck which eventually destroyed his 7th vertebra. One operation and six months of chemo later the tumor and disease had disappeared. In the middle of all of this Amgen pulled the contract and my husband was again out of work (Jan 03). I began working 55 hours a week and was going to school two nights a week. One year later my husband got another job (not in IT) and we moved on. I was laid off from my job 2 1/2 yrs later (company was in bankruptcy at the time of my re-hire).
To say all of this, I just knew I wasn’t going to get a house I could see my dreams begin to crumble before my eyes but, I pushed, stayed driven and determined that I was going to be successful in my career path and I was going to get a house no matter what I had to do. Then I get a call from my ex-husband. He was moving out of town and wanted to know if I would be interested in moving back home and into a house he put up for sale. He knew I was trying to get a house and was not able to afford one in
Long story short….I got my house, my kids are all healthy, my husband is still working and I am 11 years into my career. It took all the courage and strength I could muster in order to achieve my goal and there’s not a minute that goes by that I don’t look at my house in amazement. I am truly blessed. I feel empowered and strong. When life begins to turn (as it always does) I just look at my home, and my family and I think…."If I can make it through all of that then I can make it through this".
Owner, Martineau Recruiting Technology
As an Executive Recruiter and sales professional I understand better than most the importance perseverance plays in the "formula" for "success." The best lesson I ever learned in this came from the most unlikely source.
10 years ago I was 35 and had realized a high degree of professional success (money, awards, recognition, etc.). I was fairly convinced I knew everything that was necessary to succeed. My 5 year old son taught me otherwise.
At the behest of my wife and my son I begrudgingly took him to "skate night" at the roller rink. Bad music, tons of screaming kids and the smell of stale popcorn filled the air. My son had really never roller skated much less roller bladed but there he was, knock- kneed and wobbling all over. I was almost embarrassed for him he was so bad at it. Time and time again he fell down on the rink but time and time again he picked himself up, brushed himself off and went at it again. He never gave up, he never gave in and by the end of the night he had come to the point where he could skate around the rink without falling down. Was he bruised from falling? Yes, but through determination, grit and perseverance he’d accomplished what he’d set out to (to rollerblade) and something he hadn’t. He taught me that if we set our sites on something worthwhile and refuse to give up until we achieve it, we can achieve anything. Nothing is more important that perseverance in the face of adversity.
Physicist
Long term objectives mostly require some degree of consistent execution and thus perseverance. I have a couple of examples.
I spent 1.5 years training 4-6 times a week going from "average" to reaching top (master) level in club bell swinging. Imagine gripping two 2 ft long 25 lbs clubs and swinging them from the ground to behind your head and back again for 200+ reps or a total of 13000 lbs lifted with 250+ reps inside of 20 minutes. The leverage and force is tremendous and rookies generally can’t do even one rep if they can pick them up in the first place. Don’t be fooled by the 25 lbs. They feel like 50+ because of the leverage. It’s a fairly technical lift and comparable to Olympic weightlifting. So this was done by pushing the envelope a little bit of the time day after day. That also added 20 pounds of muscle to my frame in the process. But the most important thing was really to get down and do the workout while knowing full well that calluses were going to rip and bleed, that it would suck after 45 seconds already and usually leave the body feeling like jelly all night.
It is the same thing with (scientific) research. Perseverance often wins out over brilliance as the key to solving a problem. Usually there’s no one who has the answer and often one has to make 100 attempts before a solution present itself. This can take months and even years and at some point there’s inevitable doubt that a solution is even possible. Going through one of these runs will give a lot of self-confidence though (if it succeeds that is!!): "There is always a way" but also maybe create a sense of self-delusion. For instance I did a PhD in theoretical physics and currently believe that I can succeed in any intellectual field which obviously is not necessarily true, but that would not keep me from trying because "I’ve done it before".
Professional Student & Thinker
When I was born I had a hole in my heart which put me into pretty serious shape for the first year of life. I had pneumonia multiple times and it took the doctors a while to diagnose the problem and start treatment. I struggled for life, so my mom says.
My first years of life were fine, but I didn’t "thrive", I "got by". I couldn’t play hard, was scared of death, was shy, introverted, and unsure of the future. My hole got bigger as I did so they decided to fix it with open heart surgery in 1984; I was 7 years old.
The surgery itself was terrifying and I must say that support for my mental well being wasn’t available. My parents checked out and amazingly, the hospital didn’t offer any counselling to help me through the process. Let’s just say "PTSD" (as diagnosed later).
I remember the doctor talking to my mom during a post-op visit. He said to get me in as many sports as possible to get healthy and strong and I distinctly remember him saying that the experience has probably stunted my growth and I may not ever develop to full capacity (i.e. height, health, etc…)
I also remember that last bit infuriating me and I was determined to beat his prediction.
8 years later I went in for my final post-op check up and lo-and-behold, I had grown taller then my doctor! (I was 5’9"; for a woman, that’s fairly tall!)
I was also fully healthy, getting more physically fit, able to compete in all activities.
The end of the story is that I learned so much from growing up sick, going through a dangerous surgery, and overcoming a medical prediction. The end result is I believe ANYTHING can be accomplished and I believe that I own my body; not vice versa. When I get sick, I look to what’s going on with my thoughts and I don’t blame the latest flu that’s going around.
This is a lesson in personal responsibility and perseverance. I fought illness and won and have applied the lessons to my career and life. Thus, I am ambitious and determined; there is nothing I can’t do if I set my mind to it.
Certified Professional Resume Writer • Résu-Card ® •
Perseverance has helped me by engendering in me the feeling I can do anything if I’m wiling to keep at it and be patient. This results from the fact that most of the time, when persevere, I end up winning. I could recount specifics, but won’t, because any one of them pales in comparison to the peace of mind and sense of security I have acquired as a result of achieving the desired result over and over again. Because I work on so many things at the same time, some good result or other comes every day. There are things I’ve been working on since I was about 8, like writing. I’m 57 and still working on them, not because I haven’t achieved, but because I have achieved and recognize the possibility of further improvement.
When I was around 8, I started writing for publication—by getting a poem published in my local newspaper, the Warren Observer, in PA. I honed my writing skills and eventually learned how to earn my living doing this kind of thing. But the process is ongoing. I’m interested in writing about politics for consumer magazines. When I have time, I will make pitches to editors and put this dream into practice. Right now, I’m too busy writing resumes and making presentations / doing evaluations (this week) at two different career fairs.
I posted that final thought in response to our private communication. It got me thinking further. It is true that I was around 8 when I started taking writing seriously: I actually started a novel, but couldn’t quite figure out how to make it flow. Having thought about the chronology for a while, I remember more clearly now: the publication didn’t occur till I was around 11. My poem was a rhyme about crime. I believe my teacher liked it and helped me get it published. Around the same time, I made the mistake of suggesting we start a class newspaper, and I got stuck with the job of editing it—an enormous amount of work, indoors, while my friends got to play outside.
Nonetheless, it taught me a lot about working with my peers, because I had to get articles from them and edit them. I laid out the entire newspaper myself; I printed it using an old-fashioned mimeograph machine; and my classmates seemed to enjoy it.
Probably the main reason why I pursued writing as an adult was that my honours English teacher tried hard to discourage me from going in that direction. She was otherwise excellent, and I have no idea why she was so negative. However, my attitude was that I would prove her wrong. So, I started submitting more poems for publication, got several published in prestigious Canadian journals, and sent her a package full of them. Whereupon she wrote me an extremely encouraging letter, ignoring the fact that, prior to publication, her attitude had been the exact opposite, perhaps hoping I would forget.
But one never forgets such things.
Children should never be discouraged from following their aspirations—even against all odds—when they are highly motivated to serve. Even if I had not succeeded, there would have been no harm in trying.
midday radio host at WMTR AM, production person at WMGQ FM/WCTC AM
I told you in Tell Us the Story of How You Changed to Success about how when I, faced with a cane because of multiple sclerosis, I took up tae kwon do.
Now I’ll tell you how having MS taught me how to knit, and got me in touch with lost-lost family.
When I lost the ability to hold a pencil, I had to go to physical therapy. I decided early on that I didn’t really like physical therapy so much, so I thought for a while on what I could do to practice my fine motor coordination outside of a clinic or hospital. I also had difficulty with memory (another MS problem) and so, like a divine lightening bolt…BAM! I decided that I should try knitting.
In knitting you have to hold needles, some of which are no larger around than barbeque skewers; you have to count stitches, and think out patterns and designs–if you mess up, you can’t wear your creations! And so, I took up knitting. These days, if you see me wearing a sweater chances are good that I made it myself.
Another thing that I decided to do to help with memory recall came as a moment of inspiration, helping one of my kids with a family tree project for school. She wanted to know who came before my earliest known ancestors, so I began researching. After 7 years I now have birth, death, marriage and baptism records for ancestors going back to 1510, and historical records in one branch to 674AD. (My ancestors are mentioned in the Rhyme Chronicles of Holland and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.) I have photographs from the 1880′s and newspaper clippings from as early as 1902. To decipher the older records, I had to learn how to read some phrases in Frisian and Dutch.
In the process of finding this information I found many living people, too–long lost cousins, second cousins, aunts and uncles. Every year now, I hold reunion barbeques.
Whenever MS does something to my body that changes my life a little, I look for something to do to counter it, overcome it, or work around it–and each time, my life is enriched in some way.
Currently, I have a large lesion on my spinal cord which has weakened my legs and made them go numb. I’m in the process of figuring out what to do with my "new legs" that will also exercise something else, like my sense of balance or my vision (I always multi-task!)
Identity Management, Authentication, Linux, UNIX, Windows
With a few rare exceptions, perseverance is the ONLY way to succeed. It’s somewhat cliché, I know, but you build success on a foundation of failures. It’s how we learn.
Add your insights and opinions in the comments section below!
Success Stories are part of my Success Through Balance approach to life. I believe that Success comes from living a balanced life. You can read more about being successful and the skills required here.
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