Chapter 49 – The Value of Perseverance
After the initial enthusiasm, reality showed its teeth. One of Salimo's hens fell ill and stopped laying eggs. In Hamza's incubator, some eggs didn't hatch, even with all the care. In Beto's yard, several birds took longer than expected to gain weight. And Fito, on his motorbike races, began to complain: customers would place orders but then didn't have the money on hand, forcing him to waste fuel without return.
The group felt a jolt. That feeling that everything was going smoothly vanished. Doubt crept in: "Will this work? What if we're wasting our time? Wouldn't it be better to give up and look for something else?"“
It was at a meeting at PROSPERAR that Ernesto, the mentor, gave them one of the most striking lessons. He listened silently to all the complaints and then said:
"Business isn't about miracles, it's about struggle. Do you want to be just dreamers or do you want to be doers? Dreamers give up at the first stumble. Doers learn, get up, and try again. Falling isn't failure. Failure is staying down."“
The words resonated deeply. Salimo remembered the time he slept on the streets, cold and hungry. If he had given up living there, he would never have reached this point. Hamza thought of the incubator his father had bought with sacrifice; giving up would also mean betraying his family's trust. Beto looked at the yard and saw a growing future in the still-small birds. Fito reflected that he couldn't blame the customers—he needed to find ways to better manage orders and communicate more clearly.
That night, they gathered in the backyard and decided together: they weren't going to give up. Each loss would be treated as a lesson, not an end. The chicken that died taught them about vaccination and prevention. The eggs that didn't hatch showed the importance of collecting fresh eggs and respecting the seven-day limit. The chickens that were slow to grow taught them about feed adjustment. The customers who missed payments taught them about discipline and trust.
A practical lesson for the young reader: problems are inevitable. What differentiates those who succeed from those who give up is how they react to setbacks.
You Can: Perseverance is transforming every stumble into a stepping stone.
