I think one of the most important characteristics a leader must have is being capable of persevering no matter the circumstances. When things aren’t going on well, the leader naturally pushes forward others, or himself. If I have to talk about my leadership, this is the key of it.

ABOUT ME

I was born in a working-class family together with my 3 siblings. Both my parents have worked very hard throughout their lives and they transmitted to us the importance of doing our best to achieve our goals. They never cared if we failed in the first attempts as long as we tried our best.

Growing up in such an environment was great for me since I’ve been a curious guy my whole life. Trying new things and setting different goals were my passion, and my parents encouraged me to do so.

As an example, when I was 12 years old I studied very hard to get accepted in a highly prestigious high school. It was very competitive and in the first attempt I didn't get in. I believe that the fact that my parents didn´t get disappointed about it, and encouraged me to try again next time helped me grow up in many aspects, and I started developing my perseverance. If you want to learn to be persistent, you also have to be resilient and know how to deal with frustration.

ABOUT PERSEVERANCE

People usually see only the successes, and they omit the previous hard work and failures. Things seem pretty easy from that point of view, but the truth is that almost every big achievement made has big failures and mistakes behind.

Every good leader we know today has the ability to persevere, it becomes a natural instinct when you want real hard to achieve something. Perseverance is an invaluable tool that would help overcome insurmountable obstacles, and more than simply trying hard is the determination to not give in and never give up.

Walt Disney’s case is a great example of perseverance in a leader. He worked for a local newspaper and was fired due to a lack of creativity (yes, the inventor of the worldwide famous Mickey Mouse). After some unfortunate situations he came up with the idea of Mickey Mouse. He looked for many studios that rejected him saying it would never work. It was Walt’s persistence and perseverance that made Disney the name it is today.