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Friday, July 11, 2014

Lean Quote: Success Comes From Perseverance

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.— Samuel Johnson

Success is one of those things that just about everybody wants, but not nearly as many people do what it takes to achieve. It’s the reason why so many people search for a “secret to success”; they want it, but they’re afraid of what it might take to get there. They’re looking for an easy path; a magic pill that will solve all their problems along the way and give them what they want with minimal effort.

Well, I’ve got news for you. There is no magic pill. There is no easy path. There is no secret to success. You have to work, and you have to work hard.

It is usually true that something, no matter how difficult, can be done if someone spends enough time trying to do it. If you think of any goal as requiring a finite number of steps (tasks), then each task completed is one step closer toward completion of the goal. Again, the key is often to break the steps down into what may seem to be absurdly simple tasks, but ones that you know you can complete, thereby making measurable progress and establishing forward momentum.


If you can stay with it, persevere in face of repeated failures (and learn from each one), there is very little limit to what you can accomplish.


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2 comments:

  1. Great post. Even though I know this to be true, I sometimes catch myself trying to find the "easy" way out and, it usually causes more work in the end. Thanks for the refresher.

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  2. Hi Tim

    I love the comment and it is true. It is rare that strength can outperform perseverance, I have seen it countless times that strong younger guys never accomplish as much as determined older ones. Strength can actually be your Achilles heel so to speak, while wiser people use what they have learned to get the same job done with far less effort.

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