From Chapter 3, "Persistence, Press on!" in Ingredients of Outliers An Unlikely Hero Chances are you’ve never heard the amazing story of a man named Cliff Young, but he’s a legend half a world away—in Australia, the Land Down Under. The legend began in 1983, as the inaugural foot race from Sydney to Melbourne was about to get underway. It was an ambitious undertaking, covering a distance of 875 kilometers, or more than 540 miles. That’s the equivalent of running nearly 21 complete marathons—in a row! To put it in perspective, that would be similar to running from New York City to … [Read more...]
Tenacity: From Braces to Races
From Chapter 3, "Persistence, Press on!" in Ingredients of Outliers From Braces to Races The woman whose story follows had no aspirations to be a role model. “I don’t consciously try to be a role model,” she said, “so I don’t know if I am or not. That’s for others to decide.” After reading her story, I’m sure you’ll agree that she proved to be an outstanding one, inspiring others to press on, no matter what obstacles they faced. Born prematurely in 1940 in the segregated South, the twentieth of 22 children in a desperately poor family, there was nothing about this tiny … [Read more...]
A Shining Example of Persistence
From Chapter 3, "Persistence: Press on!" in Ingredients of Outliers A Shining Example America’s history is replete with the stories of men and women whose “press on” and “never quit” attitudes are shining examples of the determination and the persevering spirit on which our nation was built. Among my favorites is Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. Although he was one of the most colorful and popular men to have ever served in that capacity, Roosevelt was far more than a political figure. He was—among other things—an adventurer, an historian, a … [Read more...]
Persistence: Don’t Quit
From Chapter 3, “Persistence: Press on!” in Ingredients of Outliers Too Dumb to Quit? In 1993, I started a company initially called Arizona Family and Urgent Care (AF UC), on a shoestring. I literally worked day and night to get it up and running. During its early stage, one partner backed out and another one said he didn’t want to take on any more risk. I pressed on and we were actually making headway when the bank called our loan and put us in the “workout” division. At the time I thought this was great because I liked to work out. Then I learned that this was the area of the bank … [Read more...]
Persistence: Press on!
From Chapter 3, "Persistence: Press on!" in Ingredients of Outliers The above words, spoken nearly a century ago by the 30th President of the United States, have long been favorites of mine. They epitomize a core principle on which our nation was founded, and on which it has been shaped. Call it what you will— persistence, determination, tenacity, perseverance—it’s the quality of pressing on toward a goal, no matter what obstacles or difficulties may stand in the way. This was brought home to me in a special way a few years ago when I attended the annual conference of the American … [Read more...]
Are Outliers Likable? What can be Learned from the Trending 13 Habits
We posted an article titled 13 Habits of Exceptionally Likeable People on the Outlier Series Facebook page and author John Shufeldt posted it as well. We came across the article in Entrepreneur.com and a version of it was first published in TalentSmart.com. So it seems, that not only has this article made its way into trending content, but post engagement from our fans on both pages- (in clicks, likes, and shares) showed it's a topic you as outliers are interested in. We took a closer look at the article, to see if the ideas matched with the 16 characteristics of exceptional leaders in … [Read more...]