It is not whether you get knocked down. It is all about whether you get up. The history of human race is the story of the triumph of persistence. Every time you persist in the face of adversity, you build up the habit of persistence. You build pride, and self esteem. There is no failure for the person who persists when everyone else gives up. There is no defeat except from within. The one quality that guarantees success in life (in every aspect) is the willingness to stick with it when everything in you wants to stop or go back and do something else.

Raj held his 8th grade report card in his hands. There, on his report card was that fatal “F” written in bold. An inner voice inside Raj told him that this “F” was not going to decide his “FATE”. Today, Raj is a successful entrepreneur running his own start up providing jobs to several people directly and indirectly. The journey has not been easy. He was punched in the face a number of times. The easiest option, would have been to throw in his hat and quit. But he didn’t quit. Despite difficulties, he stood up to the storm.

From times immemorable, people have been in the pursuit for the secret of success. Nelson Mandela quoted “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Tina is a single mother. She leaves her six year old at school, hurries to her workplace, picks her daughter in time to leave her at the day care centre and goes back home late in the evening to cook for her family. At work she is undistracted, irrespective of her personal circumstances, her focus and time is completely towards her work. At times, she did get exhausted, but she sticks to it. Today Tina is a senior manager in the company. She now tells younger professionals her stories and the one skill that helped her reach her position – “Perseverance”.

Steve Jobs said “I am convinced that the only thing that separates successful people from the unsuccessful people is perseverance“.

Abhishek Jain was awarded the “Most successful businessman“ in a leading business magazine. Then tragedy struck. His new products could not compete with the similar category Chinese products. Slowly investors started losing trust in him and before he knew it, he was bankrupt. But Abhishek didn’t just stop. He told himself that this was a tough phase. When you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is “Up”. He worked and reworked on all areas of his business discussing strategies that worked and scraping those that didn’t work and along with the support of his loyal team, he was back in action. His share prices rose up and he was once again successful.

In every area of life, a person who perseveres, a person who didn’t give up on the face of obstacles, irrespective of the circumstance, is the one who succeeds. No matter where he/she is today, they will be able to change the story of their life, if they don’t quit.