When you look at people that are successful, it can be easy to become intimidated.  You look at the person you admire and see all the places where they might be exceptional.  And you would be right.  The problem, so many times, is we start to look at the places they are strong and compare them to where we are weak.  It’s just one of the problems with comparing.

But for the most part, it’s hard to pinpoint one thing that makes people successful.  And in trying to nail them down, we tend to focus on things that are not in our control.  Your hero might be:

Smart

Eloquent

A talented writer

A gifted dancer

Tall

Thin

You get the idea.  They have something that seems to allude you.  That is the reason they have succeeded where you have not (yet).  But most of the time that is not the reason at all.  Sure, those are gifts and they might give them a head start.  But if you look at the history of people that have succeeded (long term) in any field, they have one thing in common…and it’s something we all have access to.

Perseverance..  They keep showing up.

People who succeed tend to have perseverance.  It’s not that they have never failed.  Most of the time they have failed plenty.  They just kept going.  They have been frustrated and disappointed, and they showed up anyway.  While their competitors and their peers have looked at the mountain they needed to climb and decided it was just too long and too steep, they kept putting one foot in front of the other.  They were not smarter or more gifted…they just kept going.

This is great news for me and you.  I don’t have to be the smartest person in the room (thank goodness).  I just need to persevere.  And while I can’t control how talented I am, I can keep working my craft…and so can you.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other…for a long time.  And when you look back, you will be proud of how far you have come.

Kirby Hasseman is the CEO of Hasseman Marketing, a full service marketing agency located in Ohio.  Learn more about Hasseman Marketing here.