I Don’t Like Mondays…a study in Persistence with a Musical Slant.

By Robin Piggott

Who Ever said I don’t like Mondays must have been on a different Planet? Best day in the week after all that week end guzzling and chilling out! Today here at Astral Towers we have had a real Saddam Hussein of a Monday. Actually all positive…so I am going to share some of the good stuff with you that will definitely make a difference to your Marketing efforts, if you will only learn the meaning of the word Persistence.

Actually it was Bob, sorry Sir Bob Geldof who is known the world over for his remarkable feat in setting Up and Organising Live Aid in1985, who coined the phrase with one of the Boomtown Rats’ hit Singles (are they called singles anymore?) in the late Seventies. Being rather fortunate (very) to be living in Dublin at that time and trying to impress my Wife- to- be with what I considered to be, an Encyclopaedic knowledge of the Music scene by dragging her off to here –a – gig …there-a – gig at every opportunity, it was my main purpose in life to absorb the music scene. Marketing was some way off at this stage although the seeds were being sown.

One of those gigs that turned out to be life changing, became a memory stamped indelibly on the mind …you’ve guessed it, a ‘Rats gig at a small but swish Hotel in Dalkey, Co. Dublin called the Cliff Castle. No longer a Hotel I believe. It was the first time we had seen Bob and the gang and while the audience numbered about 45 souls (!) Bob showed what was to come by the most energetic performance I had seen in 8 years!
Who would have thought a raggle taggle semi –punk Band would give birth to a World Icon? What happened 8 years earlier in 1969?

Well, my first glimpse of Rory Gallagher and Taste at the Round House in London. There is an article published about this remarkable Blues player at a rather well known Directory which shall remain nameless. It is no surprise that success comes with massive, persistent, action, in all walks of life and both these Bands went on to much greater things as a result of complete Dedication and Persistence although the ‘Rats career was rather short lived.

Bob as we all know went onto become one of the Pioneers of the 20th Century and will go down in history as the little guy from suburban Dublin who had a dream and who wouldn’t take no for an answer! He was never afraid to speak his mind even on his first Guest appearances on the Late Late show which became one of the longest running T.V shows in history! Thanks in no small way to Sir Bob and his total non subservience to the Establishment!

Belief in oneself, which is an admirable quality, but painfully difficult to sustain during periods of upheaval in ones life, is the key to success ultimately. Persistence should be the buzzword that you live by, in what ever field you choose to operate in. How can you maintain that persistence when it all seems to be coming down around you? I guess the only way to sustain this much needed momentum, is to become a sponge and soak up every possible idea that you can and learn from the struggles and ultimate success of others .This means taking on board new ideas even if they are contrary to what you previously believed or were aware of. It means spending time with others who have a success mentality and not getting sucked into any level of negativity. It means never giving up until you have succeeded. Failure and sometimes multiple failures are just a rather unpleasant phase you have to go through until you are ready to handle what success will bring.

In the early days of a salesman’s career it is often the last call on a Friday that will give you the success you have been looking for all the week and that will break the feeling of failure. You know…going the extra mile, doing the extra call, making one more appointment. It’s a fantastic and exhilarating feeling to make that last call and make the sale when all you wanted to do is to slink home and wish the week hadn’t happened!

Life will never be the same when you have put into practise the “Extra Mile Technique” a few times and hey presto you find it actually works! Pretty much every successful entrepreneur, in every field, has reached the end of the week without a sale, or the end of the month in debt, at some stage in their lives until the Persistency Button gets activated. Then it’s watch out Success here we come!