From the triumphs of the enormously successful inventor Thomas Alva Edison to the unparalleled dreams realized by entertainment icon Walt Disney, few if any achievements worth note have ever occurred without perseverance. Showing the nature and power of perseverance, the English philosopher Edmund Burke once noted "By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation" (1). This is the power of perseverance, though it is deceptive in nature. Many people fail because they quit trying, not because they fail. Perseverance means winning the 100th time even though you failed the first 99 times. Perseverance means moving in millimeters instead of miles and in zigzags rather than a straightforward fashion, but most of all it means never, ever quitting. It is for this reason that perseverance is actually achievement in disguise.
The remarkable achievements of Walt Disney could never have been realized had it not been for the entertainment icon's perseverance. After getting out of the army, his first cartoon called "Mortimer Mouse" was stolen from him (Mosley 101). Disney was broke, barely able to eat, and living in a run-down room above a Chinese restaurant that had its fair share of mice. Instead of being depressed or in despair and giving up, Disney befriended a baby mouse and fed it a portion of his scarce rations. Ultimately, this led to the creation of Mickey Mouse and the rest is history. A lesser individual might have let such hardships lead them into a more stable job or have quit striving to reach their dreams. Luckily for the rest of the world, Disney's perseverance enabled him to realize his dreams and still give many of us our own dreams realized today when we visit Disneyland.
Thomas Edison is seen as a genius inventor who succeeded in coming up with miraculous inventions from the electric light-bulb to modern cinema. However, Edison failed many more times
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