Woody Allen’s “Eighty percent of success is showing up” was the topic of a recent Post. One great comment (Rob) added a nice twist: “And I reckon a large part of the remaining 20% is Refusing to Go Away Again.”
Coincidentally, I came across the following the next day while listening to Ernest Hemingway‘s Garden of Eden:
” … Finishing is what you have to do. If you don’t finish, nothing is worth a damn.
” … Write the hardest story there is to write that you know. Start it tomorrow. The hell with tomorrow. Go and start it now.
“He sat down and wrote the first paragraph of the new story that he had always put off writing. … The very beginning was written and all he had to do was go on. That’s all, he said. See how simple what you cannot do is?”
Message-Lesson/s: The first 80% of success is showing up! The second 80% is sticking around and refusing to leave! The final 80% is finishing! See how simple what you cannot do is?
(NB: Sounds like a biography of U.S. Grant—and doubtless many-most others who succeeded against very long odds.)