If the first most important thing you’ll ever do as an entrepreneur is just start (and keep starting!) the second most important thing you can do is to not give up.
Not give up when the going gets tough, not give up when you feel as though you can’t go any further, not give up when you’ve tried your best but hit a standstill.
It’s often when you feel like throwing in the towel that you finally hit paydirt. The blogosphere is filled with abandoned blogs, I’ve seen so many come and go over the years. People leave as soon as a new social media platform turns up, or they move onto shinier and more exciting projects like a YouTube channel or a podcast.
The thing is, you can’t make it as an entrepreneur if you don’t persevere. It often takes quite a while to get established and any sort of traction, and there are plenty of points along the way that you’ll want to hang up your tools and go home. But longevity and the drive to put one foot in front of the other is usually what is standing in the way between you and success.
In today’s episode of the ProBlogger podcast, I tell a little story about two men who have influenced me since my schooldays – two men who were rewarded for their perseverance when others had given up.
The Cavanagh brothers were miners in the late 1800s, and when all the miners in their area hit clay instead of the easy-digging sand they’d all been working in, plenty gave up and went further up the creek, where it was rumoured more gold would be.
But the two brothers were the only ones who stayed, working ceaselessly because they had a hunch – and the focus and determination to see their idea through before they abandoned it like the others.
I love the outcome of this story, and it’s been fantastic inspiration for those times when I’ve lost focus and wanted to move on.
If you’ve hit your own layer of clay with your blog, I hope this renews your motivation and inspiration to just keep digging.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
Further Reading
- What The Most Unexpected Gold Medal in History Can Teach Us About Successful Blogging
- The Five Words You Need to Hear When You Feel Like You’re Not Good Enough
- How to Regroup and Keep Going After a Disappointing Launch
- 5 Psychological Blocks that Stop Bloggers Going from Good to Great
- From Failed Idea to Profitable Product: What I Learned from Failure
