I just read an article from a business magazine about how an entrepreneur faced multiple huge failures over the decades, how he kept his persistence to overcome these failures, and become a very successful businessman today. How many entrepreneurs are actually can be successful like him?
Do you still remember a lot of wise people said, 100 people became entrepreneur, 90 of them gave up and failed within the 1st year. Another 9 sustaining but closing anytime and left only 1 person came up.
It's a no brainer thing. If doing business is easy, then most of us are making money from business and we do not have to work for others anymore. That's why when we want to become entrepreneur, think twice, get advice and make proper decision before step out. This is because it is extremely challenging to be success. Even if you first trial is smooth, the waves will come continuously and make you mentally stress and tiring. I have tried & still trying it now and no doubt about it. Sometimes, you even cannot turn back because you have invested all your resources and money into it, or even owing investors lots of money.
Why 90% people failed within the 1st year, if not 2nd or 3rd year? There can be lots of reasons, out of capital, cash flow issue, lack of customer, lack of profit, high cost, competition, poor product or services, etc. But the major reasons are lack of determination and without persistence, or we call it give up easily.
When we face problem, especially it is monetary involve, we we tend to be stressed. After tried a couple of times but failed to resolve it, we tend to give up. That's very normal. If we apply this to a business, that's where the business ends because we give up.
That's why when you read a lot of successful businessmen stories, they will share with you they failed big first, or at least encountered big issues, before they succeed. If you did not experience it before, you might have just read it through but you will be more focus on his later part of success. For those surviving businessmen, they will have the common touch if they read it, because they have experienced the same thing. Other people may not experience and understand how hard it is. Sleepless nights, reluctant to go to work to face the problems in the morning, begging friends / relatives for help, etc. These activities will make you feel like giving up easily. That's common.
Give up is very easily, you just need to avoid or close the business. Businessmen always told us, never give up. How easy this came from their mouths? Persistence is extremely challenging, you may still fail if you persistence or do not make the right change. It's not only apply to business, but similar goes to relationship, sales, get no.1 in competition, get rich, return of investment, etc.
Since it is so difficult, why we want to do business or be persistence then? Think about the reward, before you think about giving up. If the reward is huge enough, then we should give it another try.
The classic example is Malaysia Badminton No.1 Lee Chong Wei. Did you read his book? Did you see how many failures he encountered along his journey? And do you still see him in the arena now? Did he give up to move one step further? What's motivates him from giving up? He is a classic example of perseverance, a very good example for us to learn.