Be Stubborn

I like to draw paralells in life. It helps me deepen my understanding about things, simple or complex, but more importantly, it often opens up different angles for looking at ideas or problems. I'm a runner. I'm not new to running, but I am new to putting any distance to it. I plan to run the 30k around the bay road race in Hamilton on the 30th of March. I learned the hard way that you don't just decide to go from 10 or 15 k to trying out the 30, and I ended up in tears at km 23 of my pre-run of the course. There is a plan to getting to the 30k; it's been cooked up by a specialist who does these things, and it is a menu of runs of different lengths and speed that should get you through the race sans tears.
It's important to note that this is Canada. More important is that the training plan takes you running 4-5 days a week through the months of January, February, and now, March. This particular year, the weather just sucks. It hasn't just been cold, it's been windy, snowy, sleet-y, rainy, ice pellet-y. In my lifetime I don't recall such a rash of just plain bad weather. And still, I run. Why? Because I want the goal. I set the goal, I want the goal. Heck, I'm not even looking forward to the running part. The course isn't nice, it ends in hills, there's going to be 5549 other people jostling around me, and I don't have a running partner. BUT I WANT IT. Is it perserverance? Naw, that would be too "Rudy" of a word for me. I'm just plain Stubborn.
During my last run, I began to think about the Startups, and my own recent foray into working without a boss. I though about how many people must start, but don't make it. And I thought, I bet those who get to their Startup dreams would probably be out here running in the windy-sleety "snow-rain" nightmare, if the race was their goal. Starting Up can't be easy. There are people who tell you that your idea sucks, or that you'll never get off the ground; there are times when money's tight, and planning or development is stalled (or going backwards!); there are times when vendors can't deliver on time, or what they give you is crap..... and worst of all, there are times when you just plain feel like crap yourself, and you have no idea what you were thinking getting into all of this, and you doubt that you have the talent to make it fly, and you aren't even sure the goal is worth it. These are the times when no "chin up! you-can-do-it mom-style cheery optimism" is going to cut it. I'm gonna try treating it just like the running, with the consistant actions that are going to get me to the goal; the crappy running in the sleet. Me, I'm gonna Be Stubborn. I'm gonna do it just because I said I was gonna do it.