“Even if there is an escalator, take the steps as it makes you fitter”

This was Indian actor Nani’s line from one of his interviews. After watching multiple interviews, I realized that his words are highly relevant to us. That got me thinking about the difference between someone who is just aiming high and the one who aims high and actually reaches it. The answer I got was –

Perseverance

When we see someone who comes from nothing and achieves greatness in life, we admire them for their skills and talent, we say that they were lucky to be at the right place at the right time, or we say that destiny favoured them. What goes unnoticed is the one entity that is the differentiator which is that people never give up, they consistently put in effort, and stay persistent in achieving their goals. The struggle, the dejection, the rage, all of it happens behind the scenes and they go through with it.

Continuing the interview with Nani, he shares more wisdom on how perseverance plays the role of a game-changer in life. While his advice in the interview is for the young heroes, the advice holds good for everyone. In his observation, he mentions how people of the current generation are all about instant gratification and expect the same with success too, which does not happen. He says

“Be patient. Do what you love. But don’t fall for other hero’s stardom and expect that to be yours instantly”

Power of Perseverance

What impressed me most was how he said that the whole process of perseverance is done step by step and one must take all those steps in the right order. He speaks

“If you skip to step 10 or step 100 directly, that step will not hold any value. As you didn’t travel all the previous steps, your muscles are not built to withstand that step, your legs would be weak”

This reminds me of another story – In a gym, one beginner saw a seasoned lady lifting weights and her muscles were well-defined and when she was exercising, those muscles were clearly visible. Impressed by her, the beginner went and asked her about how long it took to get such well-defined muscles. In her head, she was thinking it might be one or two years, but the seasoned gym-goer said “It took me 6 years!”

The process of building muscles in a natural way respecting and trusting our body’s process (taking the steps) instead of taking a shortcut (escalator) not only gave her well-defined muscles, it became long-lasting too. If this lady, for some reason, took a break for a few days, the definition of these muscles and the mass would not easily disappear. That’s the power of perseverance.

How to be Perseverant

In another interview of Nani with Raj Shamani, upon asking what’s the most difficult part of being an outsider in the movie industry, Nani says “To just stick to it without seeing the light at the end of the tunnel” He continues saying how you may not even have a hope that something good is coming but still, you need to work extremely hard and that’s the most difficult part.

But how do you still be at it and continue? He says that this challenge, one must consider with a progressive perspective and every once in a while, you do a progressive check-up and see where you stand. Shockingly, more often than not, you may not have made any progress. But, at that moment, if your passion to achieve is still strong, then it urges you to push forward and stay focused. This persistence will finally help you look at the light. He says to have that hope even when the tunnel is pitch dark.

The twist here is that perseverance, in the right direction, will help you achieve your passion. Let’s say you wish to be an entrepreneur. The right approach is to be adaptable and refine strategies based on market trends and feedback. You must surround yourselves with people who mentor you, conduct research, and acknowledge learnings from any failures rather than criticize. The wrong direction, however, is being stubborn and demanding things happen the way you want. While the wrong direction might fail you, the right direction will help you understand yourself better so you can plan further down your journey.

Conclusion

If I look at life from afar, I see that our generation has the capability to be game-changers, the disruptors of the world. Some of the great achievers of the world did not wait for opportunities to happen to them, they worked hard for it. And the surprising part is that they never had the support or resources to achieve what they wanted yet they did it. Considering their situation and ours, we sure have better resources and support. Add perseverance to it and you have got yourselves a well-defined path towards success. What do you think?