Persistence and Pressure Bearing Ability are two important traits/qualities, apart from a few more, that define your success in both professional and personal life.
In personal life, riding through occasional tsunami of relationship misunderstandings, if you fail to demonstrate any of these qualities, I'm sure, sooner or later, you will find yourself in a mess.
Same applies to professional life as well. In fact, here the challenges are much bigger, because, unlike your personal life, the element of long term commitment is apparently missing. Ideally it shouldn't, but practically it is, in most of the cases. So, unless you're truly committed the results would never come.
Let me now share with you a true story, with specific reference to my professional life, of how persistent one has to be for producing results:
During my association with one the India's most reputed Executive Search Firms, more than a decade ago, it once took me a long time to convince a candidate for accepting the offer from a client of mine.
I would call him up, religiously and consistently, almost every week, and would keep on insisting. Finally, one fine morning, I could make him agree to accept that offer after a year long painful follow-up.
Well, he is still continuing with the same organization and would never forget to express his gratitude whenever we talk to each other.
How important is pressure bearing ability for kissing success, I had learned from owner director of the same firm.
Being actively involved with him for executing several top level assignments, blessed with never-ending deadlines for identifying the right candidates, I had no option but to work for more than 16 hours a day. To explain the magnitude of pressure, let me share with you another real-life incident:
The director once called me at 10 o'clock in the night to check out how many candidates I had identified till then against an important and urgent assignment. When I said five candidates so far, he got annoyed and told me to expedite. By the time we finished with the discussion, it was 10-30 PM. Then I had my dinner and went to bed.
Next morning, around 7 o'clock, he called me up again, to check out if I could confirm the interest of a few more. When I told him that I had just got up and would start calling in a short while, he got extremely annoyed.
According to him, I should have continued with the exercise through out the night and added a few more names to the list.
Well, through out my career, except in one organization, I always had the opportunity to work with highly demanding bosses. Tiring it was, in terms of meeting their expectations, but the learning was huge: how to remain persistent and consistently deliver the best -- under extreme pressure.
Big thanks to all of them for transforming me into a warrior with a never give up attitude!
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