Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the US
In about half an hour, when the clock strikes midnight (thanks to Daylight Savings Time, by the way), I will turn the big 29. My father asked me how that made me feel, I told him “I don’t know, but I am finally at ease with things, like I have peace of mind.”
It sounded like something that a 92 year old would say, perhaps, but I knew instinctively what I meant.
Allow me to clarify:
Two years ago, when I turned 27 and had a plush job, I told anyone who would listen that it was imminent: sooner or later, I would eventually take the leap of faith and strike out on my own and start a company. That did not materialize rightaway, and when it did, it was somewhat reluctantly. The point was, it was a matter of when, and not if.
Last year, when I turned 28, I had just launched Mojo Supreme and was focusing on WatchMojo.com. I had no idea really if it would be a success or an expensive hobby, but I knew that if I persisted and persevered, it would prove successful. Incidentally, right before I turned 28, I got an ominous letter in the mail which cast a pall over much of the ensuing year. I persevered that challenge and overcame the turmoil through persistence.
Today when I turn 29, a lot has changed with myself and the company I created. It’s not just me saying it, I see people’s reaction change for the better. Last year when I would put up an ad for WatchMojo.com, people would email curious to learn more but seemed to doubt it would work, today, you’d think they were sending something in to Hugh Hefner and applying to Playboy. Of course, WatchMojo.com is no Playboy (we’re not a magazine after all, and we certainly don’t have any nudity; though many of the female hosts on the site are easy on the eyes, bonus) and I am no Hef, but he does serve as an interesting anecdote.
In addition to being a sales executive at my old gig, I was also the resident interviewer at the magazine. In that capacity, I interviewed Hef to commemorate his company’s 50th anniversary, and when I did, I sort of felt that I had nothing more to prove as an interviewer. Granted, interviewing him wasn’t exactly like getting an invite to the Mansion, but the man was hard to track down, but by persisting, I finally got that interview. Of course, a lot of that success came down to timing: his company was celebrating its 50th anniversary, and they were looking to maximize the promotion thereof.
Hef, it turns out, used to work at Esquire and because Esquire would not do something small that he had asked for (he wanted a $5 raise), Hef left to start Playboy. The rest is history. Esquire remains an otherwise fine magazine in Hearst’s empire, but Hef has built Playboy into a social, business and cultural phenomenon that is the envy of all media companies.
Make no mistake about it, the unofficial slogan for WatchMojo.com is Just Watch. That’s not a ripoff of Nike, that is a direct message to the folks that pushed me out of my old job. It’s mainly a reminder to myself to persist and persevere.
Incidentally, any time I was miserable at my old job and wondered if I was wasting my time by not starting my own company, as a young twenty something, I would think of Hef, for he had started his magazine at the seemingly ripe age of 28. Hey, when you’re 23 or something, 28 is pretty ancient.
Now I am [almost] 29, and I feel younger than ever.
Perhaps that is why, when News Corp. bought the company that had bought my company, I was 27 and biding my time to venture out myself at the age of 28, because that’s when old man Hef had did it. Somewhat like Hef, I was forced out and left with no choice to start something new. Of course, I was 27… unlike Hef I decided to move onto a new industry, leaving the world of publishing for Web TV.
That was the best decision I did, even though some people tried in vain to derail my plans. I persevered because I was persistent.
Hugh Hefner is even more relevant to this stream of consciousness post because he was who I was thinking of again this morning when I answered my dad. You see, when my dad asks me “how’s life,” I tell him candidly that my generation should have nothing to complain about. We’ve got the Internets, after all. Everything is within a click. There are no barriers, and to a large extent, no real ceiling, glass or otherwise. Sure, there are obstacles and challenges to overcome, but if you persist, you will persevere.
The last year of my life is a testament to that adage. I can’t get into all of the sordid details, but in due time, I will. I do have a business to grow, after all.
I told my dad that previous generations had it rougher than we did. Military drafts being one main example of that. I told him that “apart from a few people like Hugh Hefner - who managed to build a company around their interests, in his case namely photography and cartoons - most people had to actually work in industries that had little to do with their passions to earn a living.
Our generations, frankly, has it easy in some ways. We can tap into the power of computing, harness the network of the Web and leverage mobility to gain and profit due to the relative early stages of the digital revolution. That is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Clearly, my dad - who is just as much of a philosopher clown as I am - got a deeper response than he was bargaining for, but the fact remains in life, in order to profit, you need to persist and persevere.
Incidentally, Persist, Persevere, Profit is the title of one of the chapters of my second book, read that chapter for free here, or start from the beginning of the book here. That’s right, it’s my birthday, so y’all get to read the book, for free.
Thanks for making this past year the best one of my life, I promise you - like always - that the best is yet to come.
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March 12th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Happy Birthday brother. Did you know, though, that criminal and geniuses do their best work in their 30s?