Hands down this is the best entrepreneurship & success quote ever! This should be printed by every business owner and entrepreneur. Might not be as relevant for tech startups that have a fail fast approach.
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge
The beauty of this quote is that it warns entrepreneurs that they should not rely much on factors that might give them an advantage over others, because the only real factor that actually delivers is persistence. Because failure is a part of entrepreneurship, every business will face failure to a certain level one time or another. The options when a businessperson faces failure are to persist or give up, and persisting often rewards with delayed success, while giving-up is basically confirmation of failure.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
So true, how many great writer have simply never finished his/her first book ? Or gave-up on promoting his book ?
How many talented individual just gave up on their dream project, simply because it’s tough?
Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
There are millions of geniuses on this earth, literally there are millions with IQ above 140, most doing mundane jobs, because they weren’t persistent enough to stick to something and become an authority in it! Personal story here!
Or even if a genius have a great idea, and not persisting with the execution, means the idea is wasted.
something similar in meaning to: There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them
Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
This is in my opinion due to a broken educational system, but still, true, education does not really give you an advantage in the business world!
Funnily, the quote does not mention luck. I am running a special report on luck, as i think it is actually a factor that is as important as persistence.
