There is something to the idea of doing the same thing over a long period of time. There are different names for that process…determination, commitment, insanity?
Right. My favorite definition of insanity is:
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
A lot of people waste a lot of time because they believe that success is a linear thing. That you can do the same thing for a long period of time, without evolving, and reach some sort of success. The reality is that you always have to ready to evolve. Entrepreneurs call this “pivoting.” And they like to use this word perhaps too often.
You have to find a balance between willingness to pivot and sticking to your core idea. That is tricky. It’s like balancing on a tight rope. You do not want to be to fluid but you need to be willing to adapt. Do one wrong and you fall off.
Now I wrote this a while back:
Everyone Else Will Give Up
Always Happens, Alwaysmedium.com
About the idea of everyone else giving up — and the reason they do is not always bad. In fact, it’s called conditioning. When people do not get satisfaction out of doing something, they will stop.
The thing that founders do differently is that they often see the long term that no one else will see. They are going against biological conditioning and purposefully doing things that do not feel or “taste” good (pavlov).
Founders are constantly trying to balance stimulus they are supposed to respond to and stimulus they must ignore.
That is a challenge.