Perserverance and the Reward

Have you ever reverse-engineered a web site to programmatically extract data? Most people probably never have and never will do this.

There are thousands of hurdles that have to be overcome. Tiny details that will prevent the objective from being met. If one little semi-colon shows up in an unexpected place either the extraction will completely fail or the data will be invalid.

The only way to successfully automate data extraction from a web site is to keep at it. When a problem comes up it must be solved. This could take hours and sometimes days but forward progress is stopped until it's resolved.

Giving up anytime before the job is complete is the same as not starting at all. There is no partial completion and partial reward. It's either accomplished or it isn't.

"And let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and you shall in nowise lose your reward, saith the Lord of Hosts."

Building the Nauvoo temple was the object of the perseverance mentioned in this scripture. Nothing great is accomplished without diligence, perseverance, and patience. Redouble the effort, push harder, and the reward will be received.

- D&C 124:4