Persistence often fails, even among smart people, because people don't know how to work productively. They think because they work hard, and are smart, they de

Persistence often fails, even among smart people, because people don't know how to work productively. They think because they work hard, and are smart, they deserve some particular outcome. They aren't try to produce, they are trying to earn a result. It isn't until people focus on trying to produce and create things of value to other people, rather than "earning" success, "doing the right things", that they begin to succeed. You have to take responsibility for your failures, no matter how unfair they may seem, look for the lessons in them and learn to be more effective. Or at least that is how it seems to me. The distinction here is very subtle, and possible to miss entirely. I think that subtlety may explain a great deal of confusion.