The sporting world was alive with chatter this past weekend with the news that the New York Marathon, that gruelling testimony to physical fitness and mental fortitude, had been won by the first American woman in 40 years, Shalane Flanagan. She managed to finish the race ahead of the hotly tipped three-time defending champion, Mary Keitany from Kenya. So how did she do it, against all the odds? She puts it down to three key factors - courage, and lots of it; sheer hard work; and above all patience. When asked to sum up her success and what gave her the edge, Shalane said: ”I’ve been dreaming of a moment like this since I was a little girl. It means a lot to me, to my family. Hopefully it inspires the next generation of women to just be patient. It took me seven years to do this. A lot of hard work went into this one moment." There is a lot that entrepreneurs can learn from Shalane Flanagan’s success story, because in the similarly tough, highly competitive world of business building, there is no substitute for hard work, courage and ultimately patience. After all, most successful businesses were not build overnight, they took time, courage, hard work and perseverance.

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