Struggling With Your Career Plan? Read this Comic Book. (Part 2)

The week in between was not on purpose, but what are you going to do sometimes?

4. Persistence trumps talent.

There are massive returns to doggedness. The people who achieve the most are often the ones who stick with it when others don’t. Use your head, your heart, and your butt. High achievers show up. They practice and practice and practice some more. One of the most powerful forces in the universe is compound interest. It builds on itself. Over time, a small amount becomes a large amount. Persistence is similar. A little bit improves performance, which encourages greater persistence, which improves performance even more. Lack of persistence works in the same way, only in the opposite direction. The world is littered with talented people who didn’t persist, who didn’t put in the hours, who gave up too early, who thought they could ride on talent alone. Meanwhile, people who might have less talent pass them by. That’s why intrinsic motivation is so important. Doing things not to get an external reward like money or a promotion, but because you simply enjoy doing it. The most intrinsic motivation you have, the more likely you are to persist. The more you persist, you more likely you are to succeed.

5. Make excellent mistakes.

Too many people spend their time avoiding mistakes. They’re so concerned about being wrong, about messing up, that they never try anything, which means they never do anything. Their focus is avoiding failure. But that’s actually a crummy way to achieve success. The most successful people make spectacular mistakes. Why? Because they are trying to do something big, but each time they make a mistake, they get a little better and move a little closer to excellence. These are mistakes that come from having high aspirations from trying to do something that nobody else has done.

6. Leave an imprint.

Think about purpose. Recognize that your life is not infinite, and that you should use your limited time here to do something that matters. Truly successful people deploy them in the service of something larger than themselves. They leave their companies, their communities, their families a little better than before.

Simple right? Happy weekend.