Be Persistent and Uncover New Solutions

Albert Einstein said this:

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

He was considered one of humanity's great geniuses, and yet he credited persistence for solving his greatest challenges.

I have been discovering this to be true in my own business and life.  When I am willing to stay just a bit longer with a problem -- rather than just give up and quit -- I eventually find a good solution.

For a moment, I invite you to "step back" and take a look at your work from a higher perspective.

Consider your real "work" to be not quitting but staying a bit longer with the challenging project in front of you.  The benefits are many -- you grow willpower, creativity, and solutions, that you otherwise wouldn't.
Each time you focus just a bit longer, you increase your willpower muscle.  You grow in self-discipline: your ability to do what you intend to do, no matter how difficult it is. 

You also increase your creativity because you give your brain a chance to work out the problem.

Finally, and importantly, you are giving yourself a greater chance of coming across that breakthrough solution that will change your business and your life.

I'm not saying that we don't take breaks -- short breaks, movement, a change of pace is also highly important for creativity.  I am however talking about not quitting on a passion project altogether, to not assume that failure is a signal to stop.  It is not. 


The road to finding a *great solution* usually requires coming up with a lot of so-so, or even "bad" or "stupid" solutions.

There's a wonderful podcast episode, Hidden Brain: Originals where Adam Grant (author of Give & Take, and his new book, Originals) revealed that the most successful creators he studied, were also the ones who came up with the most number of ideas, many of which were bad ideas.

In other words, to create breakthroughs in your life, to solve all your problems, you need to stay with the problems long enough to come up with many different solutions.

When you are willing to do this, you will inevitably stumble upon great ideas. And in the process, you are growing your ability to be creative.



Albert Einstein art created by Saulotrento. Image quote created by George Kao.