Perseverance

This essay was written for the Makers of Sport® newsletter in September 2015. Monday Musings and Weekend Reads were the written editions of the newsletter that accompanied the podcast; the archived email is on Mailchimp. The newsletter's links and announcements are trimmed here.

I’m about to head off with my 2 sons to the recently renovated Commonwealth Stadium to watch my beloved Kentucky Wildcats take on the Florida Gators. Kentucky hasn’t beaten the Gators in football in 28 years. Being 31 years old now, I was 3 years old when it happened. I’m attending the game tonight with my own 3 year old (and 5 year old).

ESPN College Gameday analysts are picking Kentucky to win and the cards are aligning in our favor so I’m hopeful. But the fanboy talk aside, this particular game had me thinking about perseverance. Kentucky, even though they’ve lost for 28 straight years, approaches each year with high hopes of winning that football game. They persevere because they have to. That is the core of sports. Each season is fresh and beginning anew. The past no longer matters.

Oftentimes in our careers we are knocked down, stepped on, overlooked, undervalued, ignored and cheated. Many of us have dreams of working with some big brand or team, getting recognized by industry peers for our hard work or even creating our art for ourselves instead of others all while being financially independent.

Professional life, like sports, is also about perseverance. Giving up is easy. Just taking it on the chin and going through the motions at some job you hate because you get that steady paycheck is the easiest path of all. No one will listen to your ideas so you quit sharing them and just do the bare minimum to get by. But I’d argue that those that care deeply about their craft will never quit. Because even though they have self-doubt, they battle through. We all know the story about Michael Jordan being cut from his middle school basketball team, but I believe if you venture deep enough in the career of any person you admire, you will find stories of their own perseverance.

One of the world’s wealthiest men is Warren Buffett. We all know the name. But did you know that up until the age of 20 years old he could not speak in public? And I’m not referring to public speaking in front of a crowd, I mean he literally could not say his name in front of a stranger. It made him physically ill even thinking about it. In fact, it was so bad that he once signed up for a Dale Carnegie speaking class at Columbia Business School, wrote them a check, then immediately called the bank to stop payment on the way home because he “just couldn’t do it". Now we know him as one of the most recognizable personalities in history as it regards to finance and business.

Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men on AMC, graduated from film school and didn’t get an interview for 3 months after graduation. He was so bummed at that point, he quit looking and stayed home for 3 years! Yes, three years. All while his wife (who luckily for him was an architect) supported the family until one day he saw a low-budget movie and it inspired him to get off his rear end and start shopping his work around. After years of trying, he still didn’t get his first paying job in show business until he was thirty years old. Not long after he began researching his eventual award-winning show, Mad Men — which was still rejected by Showtime, Lionsgate, Sony and FX before AMC picked it up. And now we all know the success that happened after the fact due to his perseverance.

My point is, just because you have some down times in your career, never give up hope. We work for the majority of our lives and if we're lucky, have many, many years to get it right. It’s not like we can just lay down and hope to be fed or even inspired. Fight through those tough times and even those tough jobs you have to suffer through along the way. So what you didn't make that 40 under 40 list. Remain passionate, keep making things, stay hungry and you’ll eventually land into a situation (maybe by luck) that satisfies your creative soul.

May your team win today and may my team’s perseverance pay off.

Cheers,

Adam