Sunday VIEWS: Road to success the right time, the right way, the right place

What is perseverance? At the moment the face of perseverance is like England’s Liverpool Football Club! After 30 years of rival fans laughing at the club, the boys won the Premier League! Imagine 30 years of waiting for victory, year in, year out fighting and never giving up! Their coach Jurgen Klopp described the win as “an incredible achievement” for his players and “the best thing (he) could ever imagine.”

In Tanzania, Liverpool fans for years have been laughed at and told to shift their loyalty to other football clubs like Manchester United or Chelsea FC. But somehow, die-hard fans of Liverpool, even after countless failures, they never gave up about the idea that one day, they will be champions.

The win is a lesson that success does not come overnight, and needs many cups of perseverance. This calls for keeping hope... believing in yourself and fighting on to edge to victory.

What if Liverpool team had given up after failing to get the cup after 4 years or 29 years? Look at the joy the team has given to their fans all over the world!

Mufti Ismail Menk from Zimbabwe, a global Islamic scholar put it in a better way. “The victory has wiped out the pain of loss for 3 decades” he posted in his YouTube account. It is very true as he noted many times, we are desperate for something and even after prayers, we don’t get it.

The scholar says that sometimes, we keep trying, praying and we want something as soon as possible. But years pass by and we don’t get it. At the right time, at the right place and right pace, when you get it, after the victory, you will forget all the pain and bask in the glory of achievement.

As a lesson from the Liverpool win, Mufti Menk noted it was a lesson that one must keep up trying, keep up praying consistently, be the best version of oneself, and never lose hope.

Putting perseverance in perspective, it could be someone doing small business. It is hard and sometimes you can hardly break even, many times living hand to month kind of life. Should you give up? Sometimes it is about education when it becomes so hard to achieving your dreams as much as you keep on trying! The lesson from Liverpool’s victory tells us not to give up in life, that your day will come.

Do you need to perfect a certain skill? You have to practise endless hours. Look at the athletes who win world games. They wake up in the wee hours every day to run for miles.

Footballers, before we see them on the field, they practise for hours and hours. If we want to succeed in all aspects of life, perseverance is one of the key ingredients. American author Ben Carson once said that “through hard work, perseverance, and faith in God, you can live your dreams.”

When we are discouraged, beaten up by life’s woes, the easiest thing to do is to give up. In one way or another, this contributes to some people ending up being alcoholics and drug addicts.

People who chose the escapist route out of the challenges they face. We all need to learn despite the hardships that we face from countless challenges we must practice perseverance, so as to get closer to victory.

For anyone with long-term goals perseverance is a must. Experiencing failure, dealing with doubts, and such are all part of life. But to stand above the rest, amidst all the challenges while pursuing our goals, we must eye the prize and persevere as we work hard for gaining what we want in life.

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Saumu Jumanne teaches at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)