Did I Suck Or Was I Just Not Trying Hard Enough?

“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. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and will always solve the problem of the human race.”

This is an amazing quote, which I had not heard until I recently watched the film The Founder with Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc.  Kroc is credited with the quote, but it turns out Kroc didn’t actually author it. Many credit it to President Calvin Coolidge, but references to it have been discovered from an earlier time that makes it less plausible that Coolidge could have written it. He may have himself just been quoting it, and he was then erroneously credited with it. Just like folks are now free to attribute it to me for quoting it. No, don’t.  Give credit where credit is due – which is to whomever. It seems no one really knows. 

That was much digression when I haven’t even started to gress yet. Let me show you why persistence is so important and if you're not the persistent type -- you need to be. Here’s my own story that I submit for your consideration.

I went to Stanford. Go Cardinal! I know very impressive, except to my Cal friends who are not impressed. But I know where the Axe is, and that’s all I need to know (Google “Stanford Axe” if I lost you). Nonetheless, I was just an average student at Stanford. Certainly no academic rock star. I was in that mass swell of the bell shaped curve -- just right of the median.

Stanford is Stanford, though, and I was a little surprised when I applied 6 years after graduation to the Santa Clara University MBA program and was rejected. I was intent on getting an MBA and Santa Clara had a very strong program. It was quite a blow. I got it -- my transcript didn’t have any wow-factor. I guess Stanford’s name didn’t guarantee any door would open. But I was not prepared to take no for an answer.  I set up a meeting with the admissions director so that she could tell me “No” again, this time to my face. 

Which she did.

She did not believe based on my less than spectacular academic record (even at Stanford where a B was an A anywhere else, and a C was a B anywhere else – so legend has it), that I had it in me to tackle the academic rigor of their MBA program. My resolve intensified – a program that didn’t want me in it was a program I just had to be in. I asked if I could come in on a probationary period to prove myself, which they had been known to offer.

No. 

Probation was at their discretion and they chose not to offer it to me. These guys were tough. Just how much did I suck? But she lit a fire in me: no one was going to tell me I could not accomplish something or that I was incapable of handling their program. This meant war! Except my opponent was not giving me access to the battlefield. But then she made a suggestion.

She jotted a few somethings on a piece of note paper and handed it over to me, advising, “Take at least three of these five courses through Berkeley Extension, get at least Bs or better, and then come back.”

That was it! That was what I needed. It was like she handed me the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Three classes? B’s or better? I was fired up. I wanted to prove to them that THEY WERE WRONG. My plan – take all five with As. Nothing less. 

Flash forward one year later and I had completed all five. One A+, three As, and an A-. I sent a letter along with the transcript to the admissions director. This was not the first time they had heard from me since that initial meeting, as I had sent them notes apprising them of my progress along the way. By the time I had submitted that final transcript I wanted them to think, “Oh this guy again…”  I wanted name recognition in that admissions office and my periodic check-ins connected the dots along the way to showcase my determination. With those final, solid results…they let me in. 

Yet the war in my head was not over. Now that they had let me into this program, I had to continue proving as much to myself as to them that I could handle that program. Over the next several years I continued to tear through the curriculum (even though the admissions folks probably didn’t care at that point and wouldn’t even see the results– once admitted I was no longer their problem). Then graduation arrived and I had become a Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) member. The first thing the professor asked this small group of inductees in the BGS ceremony was, “Why did you do it?” He reminded us that the MBA is the end of the line, there’s no need to have been this driven. There was nothing left to prove. But for me there was. Someone had told me I couldn’t do something.

This was all 17 years ago, but I carry it with me and refer back to it whenever I feel like a goal is becoming futile. I wish I could take that drive back to my Stanford days and start over. Why wasn’t I like that back then? Lack of maturity? Lack of experience? Lack of the need to prove to myself and the world that I can deliver excellence? No outsider telling me I couldn’t do it? No amount of persistence will let me have that do over, though. 

I leave you with this – don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Don’t let you tell yourself that you can’t do something. Be persistent and keep trying until you break through. Persistence is the key to success.  Never give up, never surrender. That’s a quote from Galaxy Quest, which did not star Calvin Coolidge or Ray Kroc.  But feel free to credit them with it.

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