“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
It is so hard. You put so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that I think most people give up. I don’t blame them. It’s really tough and it consumes your life.
If you’ve got a family and you’re in the early days of a company, I can’t imagine how one could do it. I’m sure it’s been done, but it’s rough. It’s pretty much an 18-hour day job, seven days a week for a while.
Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you’re not going to survive.”
– Steve Jobs
An excerpt from – How to Become the Best at Anything, Chapter 1, Passion and Interest
“What is your passion? What are you passionate about? Are you passionate about a sport, say basketball, or surfing? Tennis anyone? How about art, or music. Perhaps you’re zeroed in on an academic field such as biology, or economics. Maybe you have a passion for exploring, with an eye on the Himalayas.
Don’t have a passion, then what are you interested in? Interest and achievement go hand in hand. It is easier to achieve in a domain if you have a strong interest or passion.
I have achieved a much higher level of expertise in something that I am passionate about, than in something I only have a strong interest.”
An excerpt from – How to Become the Best at Anything, Chapter 9, Persistence, Motivation, and More About Your Path
“Keep practicing no matter what. It will take years, you know this, so you have to keep practicing. You have to keep practicing getting better every time you practice. This is a very hard thing to do. You will get tired, bored, and frustrated. It is hard to keep your focus while practicing.
I heard a story about John Wooden (often considered one of the greatest college basketball coaches, ever) while I was a student at UCLA. During practice one of the basketball players was not practicing very hard. John Wooden pulled him aside and asked the player what was wrong. He was only working at 70%. He told his coach he was very tired and that he would give 200% at the next practice. Wooden said, one can only give 100% at any given time, so go out there and give me 100% today, tomorrow, and the next day. The player went out and gave 100% for the rest of practice. You have to give 100% every time you practice.
The motivation to keep practicing and to practice 100% of the time to get better is probably the key to becoming the best. This is probably the hardest thing to do. You have to be motivated for years and over 10,000 hours of practice.”
