Saturday, July 08, 2006

THE TENACITY OF WEEDS

I've read many books on success. My own theory, or perhaps someone else's I've copped along the way, is this: The ingredients for success are TALENT, TENACITY, and LUCK.

Under Talent we'd add education, curiousity, intelligence, skill... though actually talent transcends a list. If you've ever heard or seen or known someone TRULY talented, i.e.: among the very best at what they do, you know they are special. It's hard to quantify.

And Luck is "right place right time." Steve Jobs and the Woz screwing with a computer in the garage at that moment in time...

Tenacity, though, I think, is underrated and overlooked: many confuse desire with tenacity. Desire isn't a skill. Tenacity is.

And so as I was out weeding a patch that had already been sprayed with liquid KILL ANYTHING death twice, and I marvelled at the tenacity of some of the weeds... they even grow between slabs of concrete which must reach 120+ in the hot Texas sun, it hit me. I am in the startup phase of a new business. A close friend has started down his own path of HIS new business. It strikes me that for almost any venture, you need the tenacity of weeds. Stop at nothing. Adapt. Grow.

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