This is Richland County CEO Member, Xander Holtz. We have just completed the book Things You Wish You Knew Yesterday, written by the architect of the CEO program, Craig Lindvahl. My favorite chapter in this book is titled “Perseverance Is Overrated.” When I first read the title of this chapter, I thought it was a little odd since I believed perseverance was a good thing. However, after reading the chapter, my entire perspective changed. The main idea of this chapter is that “perseverance” is one of the most misused words. Craig used the example of people saying that Thomas Edison persevered through thousands of failures while inventing the light bulb. In reality, he did not persevere through failure because he expected to fail thousands of times before succeeding. With this mindset, he did not have to push through constant disappointment because he understood from the beginning that success would require many attempts. I can take this new perspective and apply it to my own life moving forward. Instead of expecting things to work the first time and becoming discouraged when they do not, I can expect failure to be part of the process and use each experience as an opportunity to learn and improve on the path to success.
