Saad Gul
Billions of years of evolution is a proof that nature is unfailing, indestructible, relentless, tenacious, persistent and patient. How has it been able to flourish while producing structure and order out of chaos and destructive forces otherwise for so long? It has been able to miraculously adapt, evolve, grow, heal, persevere, and continue moving life forward. Humans have much to learn from all these characteristics that are hidden within nature. We have, after all miraculously survived five mass extinctions by being willing, as well as able, to persist in the face of adversity and suffering.
For thousands of years our ancestors have been studying, observing and analysing nature because it has a lot to teach us about life if we are trying to learn, adapt and grow consistently. Lessons on patience, grit, endurance, perseverance are a core and recurring pattern throughout evolution.
The very fact that we’re living in unprecedented times; whether it is man’s attempt to make a wing more aerodynamic to master flight, make cities smarter using Artificial Intelligence, colonise Mars, navigate the world through GPS – it all proves that we have been willing to patiently continue working on things that matter. That whenever things got tough, we pushed forward to drive results.
Similarly, these patterns can also be found within our personal levels. While attempting to make personal changes – to find success in personal relationships, finances, career or happiness – we are constantly in pursuit of continuous daily improvements and progressions that accrue over a long timeline. Although this kind of change is extremely discomforting and confusing at first, the people who eventually succeed are the ones that never give up. They continue to find opportunities in adversity, solutions for problems, stay optimistic instead of falling back into comfort or despair.
Consider the parable of the Chinese Bamboo Tree, for instance; like any other plant it, too, needs nourishment to grow. For the first four years it requires fertile soil, constant watering and sunshine before showing visible signs of growth. It’s intuitive to want to stop caring for it since rewards aren’t visible above the ground even at the end of the fourth year. However, in the fifth year it remarkably shoots upwards of seventy feet within a few days.
All this time, the tree was growing underground – developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond!
This is mind-boggling, but more importantly, the lesson here is that patience, faith, daily work, care and attention given to something regularly and consistently can unlock rewards of what is called in the banking jargon i.e. compound interest in the long term. Our personal lives are similar.
The best rewards are often delayed. They come at the end. Why do we then go to the gym for five weeks and want to give up because results aren’t evident? Because in this age of instant gratification we’ve been conditioned to find a quick fix and convenience for everything. If things get tough, we throw in the towel and give up. That’s not what we’re built for. That’s definitely not how we endured plagues and disasters to become the apex predator that roams and lords the earth. We achieved that through consistent and disciplined hard work and application of mind – the ability that distinguishes us humans from animals.
Similarly, an olive tree can take five to eight years – and at times even longer – to produce fruit. Does that mean farmers become frustrated and stop planting olive trees? Absolutely not. This means persistently caring for the tree to eventually harvest its fruit.
This is also what success demands. Character traits like persistence, grit and conscientiousness are prerequisites to success. People that constantly win are cognisant of making marginal daily improvements. They endure when boredom kicks in, results aren’t evident and there is no apparent way forward. They don’t wait for a perfect night’s sleep to execute. They show up even when they’re suffering physically or emotionally. They understand that refusing to give up until the goal is achieved is really at the core of achievement and greatness.
Out of 28 attempts to send rockets to space, NASA failed 20 times. Thomas Edison – who was told by his teachers that he would always remain a failure – failed 999 times before inventing the tool that lit up rooms i.e. incandescent light bulb. Before having his first story accepted, the author Jack London faced 600 rejections.
On the path to success there will be rejection, conflict, pain and hurdles. We must learn how to turn adversity into fuel to accomplish what we said we would. We must internalise that failures and rock bottom are a source of inspiration, lessons and breakthroughs.
Marcus Aurelius, the Roman philosopher king, wrote in Meditations that “just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it—turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself—so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”
Throughout history athletes, authors, emperors, inventors, scientists, artists and billionaires have proven that success doesn’t happen overnight. They remained focused, relentless and determined to either go around obstacles or through them.
Richard Branson – who was dyslexic when he was growing up – was a bad student. However, he used challenges as fuel and the power of his personality to drive him to success. Today, Branson, known for developing the colossal Virgin brand – including many of its more technologically advanced spinoffs – is the UK’s fourth richest person.
Paralyzed from the waist down by polio before running for office, Franklin Roosevelt went on to become four-time president of the United States.
Despite having survived three concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning. It is one of the ‘ten most influential books’ in the US. The book had been translated into 24 languages and sold over 10 million copies at the time of his demise in 1997.
These people were focused on the process. On doing the right thing – on mastering the fundamentals. Instead of giving up they were willing to try one more time. They were open-minded because they were conscious that failing to attempt something again would also result in failure – therefore the right thing would be to continue marching forward.
It is useful to cultivate this perspective if we want to be able to handle rejection, endure pain, embrace our fears and perform at an elite level. Not doing this would cause us to quit or slip back into comfort whenever things get tough. Success is persistence and patience in disguise – and the key to it is the willingness to try just one more time even if it results in failure.
