Persistence Is Not Repetition

Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Stupidity is accepting everything “they” say at face value.

Same Play, Different Result

In the early ’90s, when the Dallas Cowboys were on the cusp of greatness but not there yet, I was watching the annual Thanksgiving Day game with my wife’s extended family in Lubbock. We were a houseful of Cowboys fans and locked into the game against the hated Giants. Norv Turner, the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, kept calling for a swing pass to Emmitt Smith. Every time he did, it was blown up for a loss of yardage or a negligible gain. In the third quarter, he called it for the fifth or eighth time, and I said around a turkey leg, “Hey, Norv! That one doesn’t work! Call something else.”

Everybody had a good laugh. Then, he ran the play again, and Emmitt broke it for a long touchdown. After the game, Norv explained that he felt sooner or later, he would catch New York in a defensive structure they liked to run that was vulnerable to that play.

The Cowboys beat the Giants, 30–3.

Later, Emmitt Smith remembered Norv Turner calling the same play seven straight times in a Super Bowl.

“He sticks with things,” Emmitt said.

Insane?

There is a thin line between stubborn insistence on a losing formula and sticking with a thing until you have a breakthrough.

In this hour of instant gratification, fueled by social media and powered by AI, there is something to be said for the person who stays the course though the road is rough and the way hard.

After the Storm, Before Disaster

I have written about Hurricane Katrina and how that storm launched my career and changed my life forever. I have not written as much about the drought after. There were no hurricanes of significance in the U.S. in 2006–07. Then came 2008, the year of Gustav and Ike.

Because I had such limited experience, I was unable to secure a deployment. Weeks became months. Months became years. To keep the lights on, I went to work for my cousin, a homebuilder. It didn’t work. The lights went out. We had to sell our house. We teetered on disaster. Every week for three years, I called deployment people at IA firms. Every week, I was skunked.

Same play, same result. Blown up in the backfield.

Then, one day, after Gustav landed, I called again.

“Can you go to Little Rock?”

“I can go to Hong Kong, if I need to.”

I was a little disheartened, like, where exactly is the Arkansas coastline?

What I hadn’t factored was the trees. Arkansas has big, big trees. When they fall, they do significant damage. I worked Gustav and then Ike, right there in Arkansas, and the career I had launched was relaunched.

I have never wanted for work since.

Insane, right?

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

There is no magic formula that will show you inerrantly the times when it is wise to stick with it, and when it is time to quit and try something new.

There are, however, some questions to answer that can help you decide.

1. What does success look like to me? Define your goal in exact, quantifiable terms.
2. What is the risk/reward? What do I gain if I succeed, and what will I lose if I do not?
3. Am I willing and able to accept the risk? Am I risk tolerant?
4. Have I vetted my approach? Does it need improvement, alteration, abandonment?
5. Am I able to make a logical decision, rather than an emotional one?
6. Do I have the support of my significant other/family?
7. What are my resources? Who are my allies? What obstacles should I anticipate?

Especially on the independent side, the claims industry is not for the weak of constitution or the risk-intolerant. It is a great path for those willing to find their way and stay the course. When it fits, it fits like a glove. It is a great life and a good living.

Even the wise old owl thinks the woodpecker is nuts for banging his head on a tree. That is because owls don’t know everything and neither do the people who misattribute the quote we began this article with to Einstein, when its first documented sighting is in Narcotics Anonymous literature in 1981. Author Rita Mae Brown used the line in the novel, Sudden Death, in 1983.

Here’s another quote to consider:

“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” —Bruce Feirstein, screenwriter for the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies

Tell us your story. Add your two cents. Take what you need. Leave what you can.

Note: this article, written by Gene, originally ran in the LinkedIn newsletter, Axiom.