I saw a sign at a construction site this past week that advertised, “Finishers Wanted”. This reminded me of a talk I heard years ago by Thomas S. Monson about how much this sign is really saying. On any job or in any story, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is the ending that gives meaning to the start. My wife even skips ahead when she is reading a book to see how it will end before she decides to spend the time wading through all of the getting there. This world is in great need of more finishers. Your value to other people will include the extent to which you can get it done, not just get it started.
Be a finisher.
Oh how everyone in the world needs to read this message. It reminded me of that other classic saying ‘Begin with the end in mind’.
And isn’t it just in caring about those important details that 95% of people might overlook that you put yourself in the 5% who qualify for the description of ‘going the extra distance’.
This is a great poem to go along with a finisher.
Stick to your task till it sticks to you;
Beginners are many, and enders are few.
Honour, power, place, and praise
Will come, in time, to the one who stays.
Stick to your task till it sticks to you;
Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too;
For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile
Will come life’s victories, after awhile.
– unknown author