Entrepreneurship Acumen [4 of 7]: Stubborn

The fourth Acumen Fund question (see the first, second and third) went like this: “Pick one word that describes you and describe why you picked that word.” This is what I said:

Stubborn.

This is probably not the word I would like to see engraved upon my gravestone. However, if my grandchildren were to be honest about it, they would have to include it as a footnote somewhere.

Being a stubborn sort of person does have its negative connotations. It might bring to mind the image of a child obstinately refusing to eat his vegetables, or of a politician being unwilling to change his position despite good arguments to the contrary. And I do admit that sometimes I cross the line into hard-headedness.

Yet, stubborn also means ‘sticking to one’s guns’, which, if done for a worthy cause is useful in achieving objectives. Being stubborn is a little bit like having ‘blind faith’ in someone or something. The reasons for having such faith may at times be obscure and hard to explain, but they do inspire confidence and hopefulness, which help people get over rough patches. I have this sort of stubbornness too. The kind of stubbornness that helps you not give up when things go wrong, and, more importantly, to try again.

Therefore, I picked ‘stubborn’ because it is a more realistic description of me than the more rose-tinted ‘determined’, encapsulating a little bit of the positive and the negative of my personality. And, after all, were I not a stubborn believer in the value of entrepreneurship, I would not still be writing about it.

Why this is still relevant to me today:

I stubbornly think that nothing has changed.

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