Unless it goes forward, an airplane will never go up in the air. Flight requires thrust.
Without wings, the airplane will still be on the ground. Flight requires lift.
Growth is similar to flight. Here are the two requirements to grow and fly toward success.
Growth Requires Persistence
We need persistence to move us forward. There are plenty of creative and innovative individuals who struggle to stick with one thing. Instead of moving forward, they move laterally from one idea to the next. These aren’t serial entrepreneurs, they’re serial dreamers. They talk about ideas, but don’t move forward with them. They play with the idea in their head and in conversations until they lose interest or they realize the idea’s time has passed. Moving the idea forward means pushing through the resistance. It doesn’t guarantee the success of the idea, but it does bring lessons helping you learn more about the idea, about yourself and about the market. These are all things you can carry forward with you as you grow.
Sometimes we have an aversion to the idea of persisting because we see it as boring. But I’m talking about persistence as a determination to move forward, not simply sticking with doing the same thing no matter what. That brings us to the next requirement.
Growth Requires Innovation
You can move forward and still never take off. The person who doesn’t innovate, never learns or adjusts. They stick to their idea no matter what others tell them. These are the people who will milk a cow to death. They use phrases like, “That’s not how we do things around here.” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” long after it’s obviously broke. They may be arrogant and think negative feedback is invalid, or they may fear losing what they already have. If they make changes, then current customers may leave. Fear of loss is a major discourager of innovation.
