Persistence & the Myth of Overnight Success

I’m always irked by the way the news media presents superstars, particularly in entertainment and the arts, as overnight successes.  The overblown images of these media darlings are much like icebergs.  All you see is the tip.  The many years of hard work and failures that it took for these people get there—the other 9/10ths of the iceberg— is hidden beneath the surface.

The reason superstars are painted this way, I believe, is that it sells newspapers and ad clicks.  Most of us don’t want to hear that Brittney Spears’ spent her entire childhood traveling around the country singing at shopping malls, desperately trying every angle she could to break into show business.  Or that Woody Allen was booed off the stage night after night, for years, until he finally developed his unique style of comedy.  Or that J.K. Rowling lived through a decade of poverty and strife while her writing was endlessly rejected by publishers.

Why don't we want to hear this?  Because it makes being successful sound so very difficult. 

But success is difficult.  It's difficult in any field, at any place, at any time.  

The  "instant success" myth is not only misleading, it's damaging to those just starting out.  If you’re trying to be successful at something and success doesn't come immediately, the way it seems to on TV, it’s only natural to think, "Well, I guess I just don’t have the talent, that magical X factor" and throw in the towel.

There is no "X factor."  We can all name lots of extremely successful people who seem to have very little in the way of raw talent.

The secret is persistence. 

If you study the celebrities I’ve just mentioned as well as successful people in all walks of life, you see that the underlying ingredient—even more important than talent—is pure, blind persistence.   I know that you’ve heard this a thousand times, but it’s true.

Mainly I’m speaking to the many fiction writers out there who are digitally publishing their books like I’m doing, trying to make it as self-published authors.  It’s a tough game, baby, I’m not going to kid you.  I was online for 12 hours a day, three months straight, before I ever sold even one book to anyone who wasn’t already friend or acquaintance.  It's disheartening to get up every morning and check your Amazon or Smashwords sales, and see: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1...knowing that the one book you've sold is the copy your mother or best friend bought as a “mercy buy.”  With everyone around you giving positive but shallowly supportive comments, accompanied by underlying looks that say, “What are you wasting your time with this for?  Don’t you realize it’s fruitless?”   

Under these conditions, the temptation to give up—to escape that debilitating feeling of failure—is almost overpowering.

However, if you persist, and you have something of true value to offer your readers, you will eventually break through.

But the same thing applies to any difficult endeavor in which you're struggling to achieve success.

I have always been impressed with stories of prisoners who were able to dig through a three-foot thick wall of concrete using only a nail or a teaspoon, simply through desperate, dogged persistence.  If you scrape off only 1/8th of an inch of concrete per day, after one week you’ll be one inch of the way through; after 3 months, one foot of the way through; and after 9 months, you’ll reach the other side of the wall.

Persistence.  There is no substitute for it.

Will you have to change your approach from time to time?  Definitely.  If your nail doesn't seem to be scraping away any concrete, sneak into the prison library and steal a paper clip.  Or wet the concrete with water to soften it first.  And by all means, peek into the next cell and see what your neighbor is doing.  If she seems to be making progress, copy her approach.

The theme of persistence is evident in many of my novels.  In Lust, Money & Murder, Elaine Brogan persists through hell and high water to avenge the wrongful imprisonment of her father—she spends four years studying hard in high school so she can get into the Rhode Island School of Design, where she takes a double major in Intaglio Printing and Russian, all so she is qualified to apply for a job at the Secret Service.  Once she gets in, she has to fight her way through the organization's incredibly difficult training academy...and those are just her first few steps!  In both Wild Child and its sequel, Kyle Dunlap persists in trying to find an acceptable solution for Brianna's severe addiction to the green water, going against the will of his domineering father, fighting off aggressive government agents who will stop at nothing to get their hands on it, and resisting Brianna's ceaseless pressure join her in drinking it and becoming an addict himself. 

The most important advice I can give to anyone who is struggling to be successful at anything, is simply:

Never give up.