Sunday Sharies 03.20.22

A QUOTE

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
— Winston Churchill, British military leader and statesman


A QUESTION

What do you think you have more of: persistence or tenacity?


A THOUGHT

People often think of persistence and tenacity as the same thing, but they are not. Persistence is when someone comes up with a possible solution to a task or problem and then stubbornly sticks to that process. It's like the Stonecutter's Credo, as described by photographer and activist Jacob Riis as he contemplated the slow pace of social reform:

When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

Persistence requires patience. Tenacity is different - it requires impatience.

Tenacity also means formulating a solution to a problem, but then constantly assessing its effectiveness. A mechanic diagnosing an unusual sound in an engine will use trial and error to figure out the cause. He'll check the belts, then the plugs, then the fuel pump, and so on until he can find the problem and fix it.

With the mechanic, tenacity is required for success. With the stonecutter, tenacity would spell failure- he needs to be persistent.

Perseverance is a balance: it's being persistent (and patient) when needed, and tenacious (and impatient) when needed. There's a nimbleness to effective perseverance.

— thoughts from Rich Diviney on the attribute of perseverance