I watched a great movie on the plane coming back to Adelaide from Auckland called ‘The Butler’. It is an inspirational story that details the civil rights movement in the United States through the eyes of a butler who served in the White House, serving eight presidents over a thirty four year period.

It is a remarkable story and shows how resilient, persistent and determined the men and women of the civil rights movement were. The challenges, setbacks and persecutions that they experienced I had little perspective of. Enormous hatred, resistance, violence and oppression was experienced which was very sad to watch, but also inspirational at the same time.

It got me thinking a lot about the value of persistence. Sometimes we tend to see it as linked to passion and the ability to really believe in what you believe. However, another part of persistence, from what I learnt from the movie, is the ability to stay the journey around your causes. I admire the true believers and the people that have come before us. Their causes have helped us to understand how to break down barriers, obstacles and challenges that would have felt insurmountable to them at the time.

How do you continue to focus on your journey, values, causes and then continue to drive this over the long term? This is enormously challenging for all of us but imagine continuing to do this with very strong opposition from all corners? How many of us would stay our journey with all these obstacles?

Anything worthwhile that has been achieved over history, in organisations, or personally requires persistence. Success is not a short term gain; it is a long term journey where doing the right things will pay dividends long term. You may feel that you are not making progress but if you truly believe in your cause, the outcome or reward will come. It all starts with you.