Here’s an illustration of the negative effects of persistence, as told by the late Dr Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), the U.S. clergyman and educator. “On the slope of Long’s Peak (in the Rocky Mountains) in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree. Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years. It was a seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador (Bahamas), and half grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth (Massachusetts). During the course of its long life it was struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of four centuries thundered past it. It survived them all. In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and levelled it to the ground. The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks. A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightening blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb.”

Source: How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie, 1953, Cedar Books, London, p.81-82

Here’s an illustration of the negative effects of persistence, as told by the late Dr Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), the U.S. clergyman and educator. “On the slope of Long’s Peak (in the Rocky Mountains) in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree. Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years. It was a seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador (Bahamas), and half grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth (Massachusetts). During the course of its long life it was struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of four centuries thundered past it. It survived them all. In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and levelled it to the ground. The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks. A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightening blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb.”

Source: How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie, 1953, Cedar Books, London, p.81-82