When you wake up one morning and decide that everything you have ever dreamed of will become your reality, you go through a series of phases. In most instances, it starts off with an energy that propels you to get on the journey of trying. It is coupled with moments of triumph for when you finally register that business, start that blog, open that website, create that logo and finally, take what was once a dream and spring it into action. It usually starts off with a high, with you finding your first customers, engaging your first audience or setting up your first shop. It is then followed by endless letters of request, proposals and applications. Many of which will receive NOs or no response at all.
We tend to start to feel as though no one hears us, and that this venture is pointless because we thought it would be a quick fix. We want results overnight, we want them now because we have been programmed to believe that everything is as easy as a click of a button. We have come to believe that after several tries, surely there has to be a shift. Yet, no one prepares us for the perseverance journey, the one filled with many rejections, failed experiments and failed applications. Rarely, are we told of the journey in between the startup and the success. Many books simply start the stories from rags to riches. The time spent in between, which I believe is the most fundamental, is rarely spoken about. It is the in between, the time spent building when no one sees the work put in, the time spent in self-doubt, the time spent wondering whether you made the wrong choice that is most fundamental because it is in which the success story is written.
We say that starting is the hardest, but the truth is, persevering is even harder. Perseverance is sometimes done in the dark, with little reward. It is the period in which investments are made, sacrifices are made and character is tested. It is during perseverance that you want to quit because every single day you have to choose the path less travelled, you have to believe in something that once seemed viable and now seems at a loss. We tend to want to skip the book from the beginning and simply read the closing chapter, however in the journey of perseverance is where you become deserving of the successes.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
The choice will forever remain yours. In the face of rejection and constant NO’s what keeps you going? What do you choose? Do you choose to quit or do you choose to persevere? I say choose the latter.
*Mavis Braga Elias is a Civil Engineer by qualification and a Marketing Officer by profession. A philanthropist of heart and founder of the EM Love Foundation. She won the Vivid Philanthropist award in 2015 and the Queens Leaders Awards 2018. Catch up with Mavis:
Twitter – @maviselias; Instagram – @maviselias; Facebook – fb.me/mavis.braga