How Persistence Pays Off Big Time

This is a favorite and personal story that I love to tell. Its a story of how if my Father didnt have persistence I wouldnt be here. Persistence does pay off, it is not wasted effort. It began in Saigon, Vietnam around 1968 in a fabric factory where my father met my mother. She sprung thread into cloth and he was the maintenance guy for the machines. My mother was from an upper middle class family and he was from probably one of the poorest families in that city.

His entire family lived in one rented room. His mother, father, sister, brother and him all slept and ate in one room. He was ugly and he had the worst luck among his peers. All his money went to help his family and he didnt have any left over. He walked, while my mother rode a motorcycle and others had bicycles. Thats tough. He kept after my mother for ten years. She wouldnt even date him, so theres no way she would marry him. Ten years later, she married him. She was very ill, there were lumps on her throat. She thought she had cancer, the doctors in Vietnam werent skilled and most didnt know what it was. She heard of other girls with lumps on their throats that died. My mother decided to take a chance and had surgery. The lumps were removed in a rundown poorly staffed clinic where the medicine and equipment werent that advanced (not like the hospitals in the US). She was covered with blood and bandages, pale and close to death.

My father went to visit her every single day while her other suitors stayed away. They didnt want to get involved if my mother wasnt going to live that long. My father was the only one that stayed around. He brought her rice soup and asked her to marry him. The doctor told her that she had three days to live or a week max. She looked at him, pitied him and said, Alright, Ill marry you, but I dont know how long Ill live. My father took a chance, because he loved her and didnt care. My father spent all the money he had, and borrowed more money from friends so that they could get married. He knew that if she didnt live more than three days he would have a ton of debt to pay back for several years and no wife. He went ahead with it. I guess thats one bet that paid off for him, its been twenty something years of being married and two grown kids. My mother wouldnt have married him if she knew she was going to live this long. But shes happily married and theyre both in love. Persistence pays off. Dont ever give up your dreams.

Would you rather live your life never to have tried or to give it your best shot at realizing your dreams and true happiness?