Two Stories of American Perseverance

I’ve recently begun a new job leading a cohort of top-notch recent college graduates as they navigate Klein Tools’ Klein Leadership Program. As it is my love language, I’ve begun a weekly newsletter to the team. Today I’ll share my most recent one, slightly edited.

Hello Team,

Happy Fourth of July weekend! As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence, I’ve been thinking about one of the qualities that underlies nearly every great achievement in history: endurance.

In June of 1775, shortly after being appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington wrote to his wife Martha, expressing his regret that his new post would keep him from returning home. He told her he expected to be back sometime in the fall.

As it turned out, the war lasted a little longer than expected. Washington didn’t return home until December 1783—more than eight years later.

His willingness to persevere eventually helped lead the United States to victory and set the conditions for our nation’s future. But, as is often the case with audacious goals, it took a bit longer than he expected.

Nearly two centuries later, in December of 1955, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. Her quiet act helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

You’ve undoubtedly heard about Parks’ refusal to give up her seat. What is often not appreciated is that this one brave act alone would not have made much difference. Had the community returned to the buses a week later, her stand would have been little more than an isolated act of defiance. Likewise, without the endurance to withstand eight arduous years of war, the beautiful words of our Declaration of Independence might have been little more than a historical footnote.

Instead, under the leadership of a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. and many other local organizers, Montgomery’s African American community undertook an extraordinary collective effort. For 381 days, thousands of ordinary men and women walked miles to work, organized carpools, and accepted enormous personal inconvenience rather than support an immoral system.

Day after day. Month after month. They chose inconvenience over comfort and persistence over surrender until their efforts helped bring about the end of segregated seating on Montgomery’s buses. I’m sure there were many days when people throughout the community wondered if their efforts were in vain. But they continued based on little more than an internal faith that effort and integrity would pay off in the end.

History is rarely changed by a single moment of courage. More often, it is changed by people who persevere long after the initial wave of enthusiasm. It is changed by people who have the courage to begin and the endurance to continue.

It is the same with the things that matter in your own life.

Last week, we talked about the power of consistency. Tiny actions, repeated over time, can dramatically alter the trajectory of a life.

But consistency isn’t automatic. It requires endurance. It requires the capacity to persevere through inevitable setbacks, frustrations, and emotional waves.

Excellence is rarely built in moments of excitement. It is built on ordinary days when you choose to do the right thing again.

Stay courageous enough to begin doing the hard thing. Then stay disciplined enough to continue long after the first no. Commit to the right standards, and the results will take care of themselves.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

Thank you for reading and sharing!

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Carry the Fire!

Shane