Lead Or Be Lunch: The Power Of Earning InfluenceSample

As human beings, it's not out of the ordinary to look for a way to maximize results without maximizing the effort but in order to live out your dreams, you must make moves. It is easy to neglect the one component that requires the most effort but don't be that player. Be any player but the one left on the sidelines, benched alone with your dreams. If getting off the bench still scares you, look inside yourself for something to believe in and use that as a crutch to propel you forward. We all have untapped God-given abilities and recognizing these strengths will allow you to focus on something you KNOW you have, to persist until success.

I'm a firm believer that talent won't cut it and potential does not matter. You can develop your talent and you can unlock your potential but you cannot train persistence. In fact, I will take persistence over talent any day. If two individuals walked in to my office looking for a job and one was highly talented and the other was heavily determined, I would still choose the persistent candidate. Why? Because I would firmly believe in the persistent individuals inability to give up or accept "no" as a definitive answer. If you happen to be more persistent than you are talented, don't sweat it. Your talent, like that of others, can be developed but with unabashed persistence, you cannot fail. Persistence rejects progress no matter the outcome.

One of my favorite quotes on this comes from one of the NBA's greatest players, Michael Jordan. He said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over, and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

There will be times where taking massive action is the last thing you will feel like doing. Find ways to fire yourself up. Draw closer to Jesus. Pray your way through the fear and you'll find strength and determination rise up in you.

What do you do to keep yourself fired up? How do you remain passionate about your purpose amidst failure?