Recently, the story of a young man who graduated from medical school surfaced on social media. He recalled how he had to sit for Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exam seven times before gaining admission. The irony of it was that he passed on each occasion but never got admission until the seventh time. In his own words, he said: “The race to being a medical doctor is a marathon. I’ve run my race”. His story reminded me of my experience with the same Board. I wrote the exam three different times between 1979 and 1982 before gaining admission. Like the young man, my not gaining admission was not for poor grades; things did not just gel until 1982.
“Tenacity is one proof that we truly want what we are after…When the chips are down, true success will not be defined by how many times we failed but by the trophy we display.”
Anyone who has succeeded at anything will tell you the value of tenacity. It is the persistence exhibited in pursuing something of value that we desire. Tenacity is one proof that we truly want what we are after. When the chips are down, true success will not be defined by how many times we failed but by the trophy we display. Success does not mean never failing, but getting up every time we fail. Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm”. All these are in tandem with our text. Even after one may have stumbled seven times, there is still hope of bouncing back. A few years down the line, the world will not remember how many times you failed; it is your success that they will gather around to celebrate.