Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Things are rarely accomplished by one great burst of energy; success comes through continuing on day after day, long past the time when you think you should be successful. Those who persist, who continue steadily in their course of action, will win in the end.

Persistence is well-known in the animal kingdom. David Attenborough, in his book The Trials of Life: A Natural History of Animal Behavior tells about the kusimanse, a dwarf mongoose from West Africa. The kusimanse lives on chicken eggs. When it finds an egg it "puts its forelegs over it and with a vigor that would not disgrace an American footballer, hurls it backwards through its splayed hind legs." The animal does this over and over again until the egg cracks.

Then there's the Egyptian vulture, which lives on ostrich eggs. When the vulture finds a nest of eggs, it picks up large stones in its beak and then tosses them toward the nest. What it lacks in aim, it makes up for in persistence until it manages to break open one of the eggs.

Successful people don't give up. They throw their stones over and over again. When they run into obstacles, they find ways around them. When they get tired, they don't quit; they find something to rejuvenate themselves and they start again.

Man may remove all obstacles through quiet perseverance.

—Chinese proverb