Persistence Pays

You know persistence pays.

You probably have seen this famous quotation:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."—Calvin Coolidge

We like to think we have a rational understanding of events, but science suggests reality is more random than we like to think, and that the order we perceive is often a matter of our seeing patterns where none exist.You probably feel your talent and training give you an edge. Knowing that the probability of an event (for example, securing a paid writing assignment) relies more on chance than we'd like to think, perhaps we should all spend greater effort increasing our numbers—more contacts, more words written, more self-promotion.

This is not to say we shouldn't strive to improve our game, only to consider the likelihood that luck plays a large part in our careers, whether we are inclined to think so or not.

Increasing our exposure is at least as important as improving our skills.

You agree?