‘Persistence and Patience’ over ‘Hard Work and ‘Luck’. I have a theory.
We are like the lost humans, impatient and dopamine-loving beings who need instant gratification and results, and that’s why we are forgetting the two most simple words: ‘persistence and patience’. It goes far beyond ‘hard work and luck’. I have a theory.
“I have worked so hard for this. I wrote this screenplay without sleeping even 5 hours a day; I should have got it. I worked my ass off for this startup, still it didn’t hit the market. People at 23 are earning millions and I am still at zero. My book will never be the best-seller like others; I am not meant to be.”
I think we hear this inner voice; it’s in all of us. It’s undeniable; we all have self-doubts.
Not everyone is born rich or gets the privilege that 0.01% of people in the world get, so the remaining majority of people, 99.99%, try to figure out the success formula, how to be lucky, how to shortcut, what are different ways to make it faster, maybe unethically too.
But we forget one thing; we forget one simple thing — the law of nature, the biological creation of human beings.
When a baby is born, she can’t see, speak, hear, crawl, walk, run, or understand. It is with time that she starts to see things, hear things, and you know ‘how babies grow’.
You consider this phenomenon common and normal, but when your book gets rejected for the first time or second, you give up.
Did you give up on your child when she fell while walking for the first time? No? No freaking way.
We have convinced ourselves as a calculative math result or a survey that 1/5 or 1/10 should be success, or after trying n number of times, we succeed and blah blah.
Well, that’s not the case. It’s all about ‘patience and persistence’ and not just about single time or a couple of times hard work, and being lucky even takes time.
Luck needs patience. Hard work needs Persistence.
When I first started my journey as an entrepreneur, I had this grand vision of success. I poured my heart and soul into my projects, expecting instant results.
But reality hit hard. Rejections, failures, and setbacks became my constant companions.
I had to sell my company (Write Right). It was a sad decision but I grew on that now. I was impatient while handling the company. I admit.
It was like learning to ride a bike; every fall taught me something new.
I remember one particularly tough moment when my business proposal got turned down for the tenth time.
I felt defeated, questioning my abilities and wondering if success was just a distant dream.
But then, amidst the chaos, I remembered the lessons I learned from observing a startup I had invested in.
It started small, with modest growth, but its founders believed in their vision with unwavering conviction.
Despite facing numerous challenges and setbacks, they persevered, constantly iterating and adapting their strategies.
Their resilience in the face of adversity mirrored the essence of persistence and patience.
It was a reminder that success wasn’t about luck or instant gratification; it was about nurturing a vision and allowing it to flourish over time.
Just like that startup, I realized that my journey was about embracing the process, trusting in the gradual progress, and staying committed to the long-term goals.
In the journey of achieving our dreams, it’s important to remember the power of persistence and patience.
While hard work and luck have their roles, it’s persistence and patience that truly pave the way for success.
Hard work is like the engine driving us forward. It’s the effort we put into honing our craft, the late nights spent writing, and the sacrifices made to chase our goals as writers.
But without persistence, hard work can falter at the first hurdle.
Persistence is about never giving up, even when faced with rejection letters or writer’s block. It’s about bouncing back stronger each time, refusing to let obstacles stand in our way.
Similarly, luck might give us a lucky break now and then, but it’s not something we can rely on.
When my short story got published in ‘The New York Times’, everybody called it ‘fluke’ but they didn’t know that in 2013, one short story was published in ‘Times of India’, from then, till now, I work on my craft in writing to nurture it every single day. It’s been a f***** decade now. It’s Patience, dude. It’s Persistence.
Luck is unpredictable, like a passing breeze. Instead, patience teaches us to stay steady in the face of uncertainty.
It’s about trusting the process, staying calm during tough times, and appreciating the journey, bumps and all.
Persistence and patience are like the silent heroes of successful writing careers. They quietly guide us, shaping our path with every word we write.
They teach us resilience, humility, and gratitude for the lessons learned along the way.
I have written and published many books and it’s too depressing when it’s all Non Best-Sellers but when The Unproposed Guy came into limelight, I realized the journey is important and everything gets its worth. We ought to have the patience and we got to do it consistently.
So, while hard work and luck have their place, it’s the unwavering commitment to our craft as writers that truly propels us forward. With persistence and patience by our side, we can overcome any writer’s block, navigate the publishing world, and ultimately achieve literary success.
