Or: Persistence, Determination, Honesty, Integrity, and a Bucket of Oysters
Whenever I think about positive mental attitude statements and affirmations, my mind always comes back to Erma Bombeck’s classic title:
If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?
Talk about effective marketing!
Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to Eben Pagan interview Joe Sugarman, one of the greatest copywriters and direct marketers of our era, the founder of BluBlocker Sun Glasses. Joe Sugarman sold millions of BluBlockers and made millions of dollars in the process. The story is an interesting one, one for another day.
In the interview, Eben and Joe discussed many topics, topics related to marketing, success, and life. I recommend it if you can find a copy, it is well worth the time.
Of all the topics discussed, the topic of persistence piqued my interest. Persistence and determination are among of my favorite topics, along with desire, perception, perspective, and assumption…as you well know, particularly if you have visited any of my blogs.
You see, I believe the most crucial ingredient, the characteristic that defines us and determines our success, is persistence.
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many men and women smarter than I, persistence, and its partner determination, are central and recurring themes in almost every success story I have ever listened to, read, witnessed or been a part of…including my own.
Persistence, when combined with determination and honesty, almost always assures one’s success long term.
If integrity and honesty are not part of your makeup, all of your effort will be for naught.
No one can sustain success long term without integrity and honesty!
Getting back to the teleseminar with Joe Sugarman and Eben Pagan, Joe Sugarman made an interesting comparison, one worth sharing:
Life is like a bucket of oysters. In life, we are guaranteed
success if we persist. In the bucket, we know there is at
least one pearl. Opening the oysters is hard work and quite
often we end up cutting our hands, getting discouraged,
and wondering if it is all worth it when we are only half
way through. However, we know there is a pearl in the
bucket…if we just keep digging for it!
That is exactly like life!
The sad thing about it?
Many people end up losing sight of the reward, giving in and giving up as difficulties ensue. I have known so many men and women who, on the very brink of success, have thrown in the towel, unable to continue, unable to complete the task that would surely yield the pearl they had been striving for.
Like shucking oysters in search of a pearl, success in life demands a combination of skills.
The skills, when combined with a certain finesse, and finally brought to fruition through persistence and determination, often yield rewards impossible to imagine as we hover over the bucket, intent upon the task at hand, opening the oysters.
If we get bogged down in the task, complete with the difficulties, forgetting to focus on the pearl, we may not see it through.
Failure along the way is a certainty. Failure, when viewed as a setback, as a learning experience, can be a valuable lesson, another on the way to acquiring the pearl. Persistence in spite of the failure, and even because of it, will take us one step closer to discovery…and success.
Ultimately, if we keep the pearl in focus, remembering to apply both finesse and persistence, remembering that life will yield a pearl the magnificence of which we can’t possibly imagine, we will succeed.
Interestingly, as we progress through life we will find not one pearl but a succession of pearls, life’s reward for persistence, determination, honesty, and integrity…all along the way to an empty bucket and whatever awaits us in the hereafter.
Another, larger bucket…or perhaps a string of pearls?
John
Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (office)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com
excellencepaidforward@gmail.com (personal email)
PS, If you want to read a little bit about Joe Sugarman’s latest venture, something I immediately got involved with because it promises to help so many of my readers with various health issues and challenges…from pain to energy and illness to aging! It is truly an amazing product and the best I have come across, anywhere! If Joe Sugarman is on board you can be certain it is the very best available or he simply wouldn’t offer it!
