It's cool in the pool - and sometimes it isn't (Column)

Know the difference!

There is a saying in Afrikaans aanhouer wen which directly translates to someone who keeps on screaming - on howler - is a wen/whiner. No, that's not it. It means persistence pays off. Ja,this time I'm sure.
The English equivalent of this is 'hard work pays off' or 'hard work is it's own reward'. William Penn said To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle. And Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Do I have a point? Yup.

It's this. If you can come up with an effort, great. Your chance of success is far greater than if you do nothing. It's kind've like putting on a green. They say never hit the ball too soft. Why? If the ball falls short it never stood a chance of going in, whereas if it went long - even if it missed - at least you gave yourself a shot. Is the mist starting to clear?

Let me clear it for you even more. There are few things as dispiriting as putting in a lot of discipline and effort, and coming up short. And not because your effort lacked anything (except perhaps the right person to receive it). Fact is, to make an effort and fail again and again is just stupid. To fail twice at the same game is dumb, especially if you do the thing you do, the same way, for the same person. Aristotle has a curve ball in his claim that we are what we repearedly do. If you repeatedly make the same attempt without success, then the more often you do the exact same thing without success the dumber you are.
There is Colonel Sanders - one presumes he was learning something new every time he pitched his recipe, and perhaps he was adding the finishing touches along the way. But here's the thing: Colonel Sanders wasn't dumb enough to approach the same guy again and again, hoping he'd get a different answer.

Let me give you an example from my own extensive archive of how NOT to waste your effort. I'd seen on a freelance site that there were invitations to write for a particular finance publication. I made an offer, the guy said he liked my stuff, would I write 3 articles for him over the next 2 weeks, then he went off on holiday and I went - well, to Baviaans, Sun City, and got a double whammy of sickness. When he got back I told him I had been sick and hadn't gotten round to writing anything. He was pretty pissed he hadn't received anything from me, and sent me this email:

Hi Nick

I'm sorry that you are ill, in fact I can see it when reviewing your articles on Ohmynews International between 21 and 31 August, which don't have the sizzle of your writing that I reviewed earlier.

I do hope that you get better.

Clive

I got this email whilst sick and Clive was hoping for articles for his magazine called, ironically enough, Productivity. You read that email and it seems fine right? Actually Clive really didn't care that I was sick at all, in fact he didn't believe I was to begin with. The entire message is a contrived piece of sarcasm.

When I told him I had been sick, he then went onto Ohmynews (a resource of my articles I'd provided him with as a sort've portfolio) and 'checked up' to see I had produced writing in that time. Since I'd written for them why didn't I write for him? Er...because I was sick Clive. Do you want one doctor's note or two? His comment at the end: I hope you get better is scathingly ambiguous. Even though I suspected as much, I still made one extra effort to say - Look, would you like any those pieces you asked for. He didn't respond. Here is an example of someone you never approach again. Ever.

In contradistinction, I submitted a 4x4 story to Leisure Wheels in the last few weeks and I got this curt reply:

Thanks...but no thanks

I then emailed the editor (Jannie) directly. He made a personal call to me the next day (while I was cycling to Sun City) and said, "We'd love to see your stuff." When he got it he said they liked it and wanted the photos on disk.

Notice how important discernment is in the above cases. But there's something else. Make a single extra effort - even in the face of defeat. Trick is - break that habit of defeat early.

When on the brink of complete discouragement, success is discerning that... the line between failure and success is so fine that often a single extra effort is all that is needed to bring victory out of defeat. - Elbert Green Hubbard

You can put in endless amounts of hard work for the Clives of this world. Please don't. Rather save yourself for Jannie, who values what you do and will even call you to make sure you know he wants what you have to offer.

You don't have to be a writer to know Clive and Jannie. You might have a boyfriend or girlfriend or just a friend, or a boss, or a relative. Invest in Jannie. All that energy you have, the work you do - don't cast those pearls before swine. Pay attention to the way people treat you. Don't persist with those who persist in not knowing their manners. It's really not about the manners aspect - it's the fact that if someone doesn't know to treat you and your work with respect, they probably don't know what to do with treasure when they've found it. You want someone who will take care of your treasure, and carry you on a sailboat of success - the wind a wind of your will, your dreams turned into action.

The other aspect is that single extra effort. That's you. That's where you get up and put the scraps of what remains and give it another go. That's how I did the 2005 Ironman. One last effort, third time lucky. I'm sure we all have stories about how important the one last attempt can be. Ryk Neethling quit swimming around 8-9 years ago. Then he started swimming for fun, enjoyed it, got better and put in another effort. He ended up - well, it's old news now.
Look at Michael Phelps. He got his 8 gold medals, but some medals were one by the smallest fraction imaginable.

In cycling, perhaps more than any other sport, if you put in that extra effort on the climb, during the break - you stay with the bunch, or with the breakaway. In a sprint, I've been matched pedal for pedal, over 2 or 3 hundred metres. It's those last 5 metres that matter. In cycling if you fail to put in that last bit of effort, you lose the bunch and can struggle - literally - for a hour, even hours on your own. Relationships can sometimes work like that. Getting that effort into the hoop. In my case it might be a story published or getting a certain result in a bike race.

Lance Armstrong has just announced his intention to make one last effort. He is coming out of retirement for an 8th attempt at winning the Tour de France. Btw that's his new bike shop pictured at the top of this post. A large part of that final effort involves Lance surrounding himself with a strong team. People who believe in him, people who believe he can win and who will help him win. And crucially - people willing and able to translate that belief in Lance into belief in their own ability to come up with great blood curdling efforts. Every last effort from Lance and his team will count (Lance even has a book that echoes that - Every second counts). When people say, squeeze every drop out of an experience, there is a tremendous amount of wisdom, reward and benefit in that.

Zig Ziglar summarises it best. Where you start is not as important as where you finish. Keep track of where you are. There are people out there that will insist on you dropping the anchor. Steer clear of them. That's the easy part. The hard part is being the sort of person that knows how to sail, how hard and fast to sail and finding like minded people on the ocean of truth that is out there to sail with. There aren't many, but the rewards out there are worth it. Good luck.