I’ve practiced judo for more than 27 years. What separates a white belt from a black belt is that the black belt shows up every day for practice. They show up every day even when they don’t want to. They show up on the good and the bad days. They don’t make excuses. They show up for themselves and others because they made a commitment. They work at their dreams every day.
Athletics is such a good paradigm for business. Think about all of the famous entrepreneurs—Arianna Huffington, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates—they all showed up every single day. Through recessions and setbacks and failed ideas and even more failed ideas. They continued showing up.
Passion is the spark; discipline is the fuel. Together, they make a recipe for perseverance. It’s this combination that not only made these entrepreneurs successful, but unforgettable.
Discipline comes first. The discipline portion has a pretty short learning curve—some argue as few as 27 days. But once you’ve learned the discipline portion, you can trust that any time you want to make something happen in the future, you know what it takes to show up every single day. When passion and motivation wane, discipline pulls through to keep you going.