A lot of golfers use this quote when they hit an errant first shot. Golf can be an unforgiving game in many ways, but one of the beautiful things about it is that (especially for the pros) you are never “too far gone” to recover. Even if you hit in the water you get a chance to put your ball at the water’s edge and take another swing. And if you want to be a great golfer, you had better learn how to putt. You can hit the perfect drive off the tee and land it right on the green, but without the putting skills to finish it out you will be bogeying every hole.
The same principle is true in life: how you finish generally determines how successful you will be. My uncle, Jack McShea, started and ran two very successful companies in his lifetime. He once told me he liked to hire college graduates, not because of the curriculum they studied or the specific degree they had earned, but because graduating from college proved that they could stick with something challenging all the way to the finish.
There is a gentleman in my industry who is hugely successful largely because he has adopted a “refuse to lose, finish every time” mentality. His attitude and philosophy set the tone for his whole company and the culture they have developed. It’s a vital attitude to have in commercial real estate especially, because our deals typically face a lot of bumps along the way to completion. You have to be able to finish strong even after negotiations that can drag on for months. There might be ten different occasions when it will look like a deal is dead, only for it to come back to life a week later. If you want to succeed in this business, you have to be able to push to the finish line despite all these setbacks.
Really successful people are finishers in all that they do. They have a core determination that drives them to try their hardest at every job, big and small. But I also believe that successful people choose their goals carefully. If they start something, it is because they gave it some thought and decided that the thing is worth doing, it is something they want or need, and it is something they are willing and able to commit themselves to accomplishing. This doesn’t mean that they will love everything they set their minds to doing, but it does mean they won’t waste their efforts on things that will not provide them with any benefit in the end.
My dad used to say that long-term success is achieved by the good habits that we form which influence our core being every day. Why not start forming those habits now? Finish what you start today. It could be as simple as writing an email or keeping your goal to hit the gym after work. You don’t have to be perfect, or get everything right the first time. Just finish what you start, and start things that are worth finishing.
Have a great weekend,
Ro