I played football my freshman year in high school. I was skinny, but not the smallest. Danny was.

Danny wasn’t naturally gifted and clearly didn’t have the football physique. But Danny did have one thing that was greater than any other player, he was relentlessly persistent.

Danny was always the first player at practice and the last to leave the field. He would make a tackle and keep driving you down even where you were already down. I can’t say being tackled by Danny was painful, but it was painfully annoying. He never stopped. He never gave up.

Danny was so relentlessly persistent in making tackles, that he become a starter over guys twice his size. And he lead the freshman team in tackles that year.

I quit the team at the end of the season while Danny joined the varsity squad, ultimately becoming the team captain and MVP.

Business success doesn’t go to the naturally gifted entrepreneurs. It doesn’t go the company with the right size or perfect positioning or loads of money. The winners of commerce are the ones who are relentlessly persistent, even – scratch that – especially against the odds.