The difference between IF and TILL

Sudhindra Naib
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read

Two stories:

Digging

A man wishes to dig a well for water. He starts digging at a particular spot he thinks he is most likely to find water. A couple of hours of digging later — no water. He feels frustrated and thinks he is digging in the wrong spot and he should change it. Possibly below a tree? He starts digging below a tree. Three hours after he starts digging — no water. Frustrated again, he looks for that ideal spot which will improve his chances of striking water. He starts digging at a different spot and spends an additional couple of hours. Still no water and the frustration only mounts. Nevertheless he starts digging at a newer spot — the fourth spot. Ten hours of digging at the 4th spot, he strikes water.


Entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur has a great business idea and launches it with fanfare. Just one year later, he loses patience and pulls the plug. He then works with gusto on his next idea. Two years into this, he loses patience again and pulls the plug. Ditto for idea 3 — two years to no avail. Nevertheless he works on idea number 4. Many years later, his idea (the 4th) succeeds and becomes big.


In both the stories above, the obvious conclusion seems to be that if only the man or the entrepreneur had got lucky and encountered the 4th spot or the 4th idea first, they would have succeeded at the first attempt itself.

Right? Not quite.

The sharper one amongst you would point out that the 4th spot or the 4th idea succeeded because the man or the entrepreneur were at it for a longer time. They did not give up but persisted.

Many wise men have said, if there is one trait that they value the most in an entrepreneur, it is the trait of persistence. I believe it too. It is not about thinking if an idea will succeed but instead a matter of working on an idea till it succeeds. In the startup world, overnight successes take anywhere between 7–8 years. This is still year 3 of HomeInspeKtor!

Miles to go before I sleep!

Image Credits:

Soil in Hands by NRCS is licensed under CC BY 2.0

So Many Ideas by Vanity Mirror is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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