You can't achieve anything in life without perseverance and persistence. The fruits of your labor only show after you have put in a lot of work.
For example, on this site I have published many articles that only a few people have read. But because I uploaded articles week after week, my website now counts thousands of visitors per year.
The power of exponential growth is evident not only in career, but also in health, personal development, interpersonal relationships, learning, and just about every other area of life.
The effect of persistence is like a law of nature. That's why it's even more important to be aware of the two key implications of this law.
You Have to Put in the Work to Be Successful
There is no such thing as overnight success. You need patience to be successful. The phenomena we perceive as quick success are triggered by an incredible amount of energy, invested in the years leading up to the public success. However, these investments are mostly invisible.
It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.
Eddie Cantor
Keep in mind that you have to put in a lot of work and energy to be successful. That means you have to be clear about what areas you want to be successful in. There is no point in winning if you play the wrong game.
Success Sometimes Takes Time
It's often hard to keep going when you don't see the results of your efforts immediately. What's the point of exercising if I still haven't lost weight? Why should I write a new article that no one reads anyway? If I read five pages today, I haven't learned much.
All of these concerns are perfectly legitimate – but they ignore exponential growth. The fruits of labor only become apparent over time. If you persevere and keep working today, you can enjoy the positive results in the future.
This isn't true everywhere – if you completely burn yourself out, there will be negative consequences – but it is true in so many areas that it's worth pushing through some things, even if you're demotivated.
The key is to work on the tasks that are worth it, that have positive consequences (in the future), and that you really want to succeed at. If one of these conditions does not apply, you should cut back the invested energy or give up the task altogether.
However, if the task is worthwhile, has positive potential and you really want to become successful in this area, then you must be prepared to invest the necessary energy, because perseverance is the key to success.