Steve Jobs Said Half of What Separates Success From Failure Comes Down to 1 Simple Word

I’m not particularly smart. I’m not particularly athletic. I don’t have any real talents (when talent is the ability to learn a subject or gain a skill more quickly than most). I’m the poster child for average.

Maybe that’s why, out of all the great things the Apple co-founder said, this is my favourite Steve Jobs quote:

I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You pour so much of your life into this thing.

There are such rough moments … that most people give up. I don’t blame them. It’s really tough.

While Jobs was referring to startup founders, the premise is broadly applicable. Whatever intelligence I possess is from reading at least two books a week. My fitness level is due to the fact I work out nearly every day. My writing ability, such as it is, is due to the fact I write every day.

In any pursuit, any success I’ve enjoyed is because I show up, even when I don’t want to.

While that might sound too simplistic — perseverance is just one factor in achieving any worthwhile pursuit — just showing up carries outsize importance. For example, a meta-analysis published in Review of Educational Research found that college students who consistently go to class get (surprise, surprise) better grades.

While that might sound more like correlation than causation — maybe the smartest people tend to go to class more regularly — there’s more to it.

As the researchers write:

Class attendance (better predicts) college grades than any other known predictor of academic performance, including scores on standardized admissions tests such as the SAT, high school GPA, study habits and study skills.

Results also show that class attendance explains large amounts of unique variance in college grades because of its … weak relationship with student characteristics such as conscientiousness and motivation.

Not particularly smart? Not particularly motivated? Not a great student? As long as you show up, and keep showing up, you’ll likely do well.

That’s true for most things. Say your goal is to make 10 sales cold calls a day, but today you just aren’t feeling it. Just make two calls. Something is always better than nothing, and sticking to your plan, at least in part, will help you maintain the routine. (Habits: really hard to establish, incredibly easy to break.)

Plus, those two calls could break you out of your unmotivated funk.

“If you don’t want to do something,” Instagram founder Kevin Systrom says, “make a deal with yourself to do at least five minutes of it. After five minutes, you’ll end up doing the whole thing.” Even if you don’t, that’s OK: Showing up every day allows you to put at least a partial X in your Jerry Seinfeld calendar chain.

And then there’s this. Do something regularly helps you, as odd as it might sound, become that thing.

Say you want to start a business. At first, you’re checking off to-do lists. You’re following advice from others. You’re finding your way. But in time, you no longer see yourself as a person who is starting and running a business.

You’re an entrepreneur; that’s who you are, and you act accordingly.

Or say you hire employees. At first, you manage them — but when you show up every day, in time you start to think of yourself as a manager. Leading is no longer something you do. You’re a leader; that’s who you are, and you act accordingly.

The same is true for any pursuit. When you show up consistently, over time you become the thing you do. If you’ve just started jogging, you would never call yourself a runner — but by showing up, time after time after time, one day you’ll wake up one day and see yourself not as someone who runs, but as a runner.

Sound too simple? Science says otherwise. A study published in Child Development found that students were 30 percent more likely to clean up when teachers said, “Can you be a helper in cleanup?” instead of “Can you help clean up?”

That small shift isn’t just effective with kids. A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who received a letter encouraging them to be a voter rather than simply to vote were 15 percent more likely to register to vote.

That’s why Jobs put so much emphasis on perseverance. Clearly staying the course matters: While showing up won’t guarantee success, giving up does guarantee you’ll fail.

Don’t have a talent for sales? If you show up, sales skills can be learned. Don’t have a talent for leading people? If you show up, most leadership skills — giving feedback, building teams, setting expectations, showing consideration for others, seeking input, focusing on meaningful priorities, etc. — can be learned.

Success in most pursuits doesn’t require talent. Success simply requires skill.