Persistance prevails when all else fails

Over the past fifteen years I have seen so many talented athletes give up on their dreams about one season too early. They’ve let the dream slip away when they were so close. A little bit more perseverance was all that was needed.

The talent was there, the skills were usually well developed, just needing a little more refining over another year. Maybe it’s the generation “Y” thing, where young people want to go straight to the top without doing the groundwork. But it’s not just generation “Y”. Athletes of all ages start out with a list of goals to achieve and many run out of committment before the journey has been completed.

I’m as guilty of this as much as anyone. Over the years I have started seven businesses from scratch and worked really hard to make everyone of them successful. But once they had reached a level where things were running smoothly and profitably, I lost interest and went off on another project. It seems I like the struggle to get there, but once I’m almost there and the struggle is done. I look for something else to struggle at. 

It takes discipline to stick at something and to see it through to completion. We must have a clearly defined path, and definite goals to reach along the way. Things to tick off the list. It’s also important to share your long term goal with someone you trust. This makes it harder to abandon.

There’s a great story of a Sicilian family which makes me feel good every time I recall it, the Casella family’s success story. The founder and his wife arrived in Australia with nothing in 1936. They started a winery near Griffith. At the time Australians hardly drank wine, it was a beer drinking country. The sold their wine from the back of their truck to other immigrants around the area. The business grew and is still run by the family.

As the business grew they looked at export markets for their budget priced, good tasting wines. I first tasted thier wines in Hawaii a few years ago. They have become the largest supplier of imported wines in the USA with their Yellowtail brand. The family business exports 8 million cases of wine annually. Last year the sales reached $426m but profit had fallen to $40m with the economic downturn. This story makes me feel good inside, the persistance over three generations and seventy years has turned a “back of the truck” business into an international success story.

Our dreams may not be as grand as the Casella family story. But our personal athletic journey can be much grander than we ever imagined if we have a plan and if we stick to it. There are going to be times when the going gets tough, illness, injury, loss of motivation can all slow progress for a while.

But getting back on track after a setback, is the one single thing which  can  determine whether you’re there when the champagne is being poured. Every athlete has setbacks at some time. Read the biographies of champions, they’re full of setbacks being overcome.

I have found that when an athlete has an unsatisfying race, the next major race they do is a ripper. I’ve seen major breakthroughs come from the fuel of disappointment.