Have you ever seen a dog that wants something? A bone, a ball, a treat, to be let outside? They’re relentless! A dog will stand guard over person or prized object for hours on end, long after they should’ve given up or fallen asleep. Dogs have an unyielding tenacity once they set their minds to something. What if each of us was the same?

What if we set a goal, and kept pawing for it until we achieved it? What if we saw something we wanted, and tried and tried again to obtain it with no regard for how many times we might fail? There’s really a lot that can be learned in the simplicity of not giving up.

This lesson has certainly applied to me more times than I wish to admit. I’ll try something, however important or negligible, a time or two. And if it doesn’t work, I move on. But if it’s something I really want, or something I know I need, moving on after a failed attempt only hurts me.

Let’s say I pitch a publisher, and they reject my work. Well, that sucks, but let me try another one. They reject it, too. I guess I should write something else. This is terrible logic!

If you have experience in any form of sales, you know that so much of life is a numbers game. You have to keep doing the same thing over and over again to find any success. I once heard a top salesman say, “Everyday, my goal is to get to 20 No’s as fast as I can, because I know that will bring me closer (if not all the way) to a Yes.”

You tell a dog you’re not giving him that piece of bacon ten times, but he still keeps trying to get that piece of bacon. Eventually, somehow, he finds a way to get that piece of bacon. He doesn’t give up. He keeps trying until he succeeds. What if we were all tenacious as dogs?