This article from Sports Illustrated intrigued me. It’s a feature on Texas Ranger’s pitcher C.J. Wilson.
In it, Wilson says “Talent is irrelevant…I’ve got much less natural talent than lots of other pitchers…I wasn’t even the best player on my Little League team.”
Wilson says what counts the most is “…perseverance, application, industry, assiduity, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire”.
This is just one lone example. Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs and others come to mind as well.
I would dare say that the single most important characteristic of successful content marketers (individuals and brands) is perseverance.
Do you know of any great bloggers that haven’t, time after time, consistently delivered? Seth Godin, Copyblogger, Lee Odden, Mack Collier…they all deliver. Not all of the posts are diamonds, but the collection of singles and doubles throughout the years have led to world series titles for each of them.
The same holds for brands…American Express Open Forum, Pinsent Masons, Openview Venture Partners.
So, if, by whatever measure you use to judge success, if you are not seeing success, I would first look at your consistency. How well are you at creation, listening, iteration and then creation again? Content marketing is a promise to your customers. If you stop or are too irregular with your content, are you breaking your promise?
Winners want it more. They never stop. They persevere…and it pays off.
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