Tenacity

Any of you in the business of consulting, or research or analysis might relate to this topic: tenacity is one of the keys to success in business.

Yesterday, I was engaged in a quasi-business conversation with a colleague about the very topic of tenacity. He believes that it separates the winners from the losers in the world of business, especially in the area of entrepreneurs. And I agree with him wholeheartedly.

If you are in the business of delivering results or getting answers, you will inevitably get stuck once in a while. The cart will go in the ditch. The train will run off track. [Pick your favorite cliche.] One way to respond is to give up. Another way to respond is with tenacity.

Tenacity, of course, is about never giving up. Tenacity is about not accepting "no" for an answer. Tenacity is about having the creativity, wisdom and resolve to change plans or to alter one's course when adversity is encountered. "Tuh-nah-suh-tee" I even like the sound of the word.

As Jimmy Valvano said, so plainly and simply: "Never give up. Never, never, never give up!"

Presently at Maple Creative, a team of us are involved in a research project for a client. It involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods or tactics. So far, we have gotten lukewarm results on the quant and downright horrible results on the qualitative. The problem is that we have been unable to recruit focus group participants - at least a sufficient number to satisfy the research objectives that we promised to our client. I'll be honest: this has been tough ... discouraging. For about two weeks my colleagues and I continued to grind ... to beat our heads against the wall trying to round up focus group participants. Still no avail.

[By the by ... a quick marketing lesson: Spring is a horrible time to expect people to be somewhere for something that they might rather not do ... meetings, training, focus groups, etc. Folks have been "cooped up" all winter and are bursting to get outside and do outdoor things. This same phenomenon bit us in the rear last spring on a similar research project for a different client.]

Did we give up? No. Did we get discouraged and frustrated? You bet we did.

Eventually, our tenacity kicked in, and we shifted gears. We found a better way to get the research done ... to get answers for our client. We took to the "streets." Armed with clipboards and our attitudes, we began on Wed