Famously said by basketball legend Kobe Bryant, this quote is one that is similar to things many other extremely successful people have said over the years. The basic premise is that through hard work we can achieve anything, but it is the addition of perseverance, and avoiding excuses that really set this quote apart, and why it is so important.

Very, very few people achieve instant success, and a good example is the lightbulb. Thomas Edison was not the only one working on electric lighting, Joseph Swan in England was doing the same, and others around the world were trying to create something similar. But it was Edison who created the first affordable and marketable version. He tried nearly 3,000 different designs before finding the one that worked. That is where perseverance comes in. Had he not continued to try, all that hard work would have meant nothing, someone else would have become the first instead.

If there is something you believe in, anything you want to make happen, then it is down to you. Work hard, keep going until you achieve it. Whether it is getting the grades for a dream career or knocking another tenth of a second off your sprint time, whatever you want to achieve, the key to that is within you. Don’t give up, keep going with your idea and you can make great things happen. Excuses are the danger to this. You may think excuses are for other people, but they are not. Excuses are for ourselves. They allow us to give up, to stop persevering, and to justify it, so we don’t blame the only person responsible, us.

As Kobe says, never use an excuse. If you fail, work out why, get up and try again. That is how we succeed, through effort and perseverance.