I had coffee this morning with a good friend.  I love to do this.  He is a sharp businessman and full of leadership wisdom.  He told me that he had faced many things that would make others give up, but the key to his success is persistence.  He will not quit.

I believe this to be a trait of any good leader.  It goes by many names.  I have always thought of it as stubbornness.  I see it in myself.  I may not have a lot going for me but I am stubborn.

Julien Smith talks about The Flinch (a Kindle book you can download free right now, published by Seth Godin and the Domino Project).   To flinch is to draw back or shrink, as from what is dangerous, difficult, or unpleasant. We all have a flinch.  Smith says that we have to find ours and face it.  “You need to take back control and stop the flinch…because you have a job to do — you have a fight you need to win.”

I know the enemy will try to derail every project, endeavor, undertaking, or calling.  There will be points where you doubt yourself, God, and everything you thought you knew.  And that is where stubbornness must come to play.  Great leaders push through the doubts…the flinch points…and keep pursuing the call of God on their lives.

Have you experienced a crisis moment like this?  Did you quit?  Did you regret quitting?  What will it take to keep going next time?