My son McKay wanted to go to Ballpark Pizza.
Not because he was craving pizza, but because they had a basketball arcade game he’d played at a birthday party, and he really wanted another shot at it.
He was fired up.
Dinner had just wrapped, and it was getting a little late, so my wife and I told him, “No, not tonight.”
That didn’t stop him.
McKay persisted. He kept trying, asking, pleading… making his case in every way he knew how.
“Please! Please take me! Let me go!”
He wasn’t being rude or bratty, just determined.
But even with his best effort, we weren’t giving in.
Eventually, he went silent. Really silent.
We noticed.
A few minutes later, we walked into the room where he was building with our family’s “Fort Magic,” a building set our family uses, kind of like a mega
Lego-meets-creative-engineering kit.
And right there, on the living room floor, he was going to work building the basketball arcade game himself out of fort magic 😳
He didn’t pout. He didn’t whine. He just… went to work.
And it blew us away.
This little guy had just shown one of the most powerful principles of success, one that so many adults still struggle to master.
He nailed it.
When the World Says “No” — Get Creative
Here’s what McKay did:
- He got clear on what he wanted.
- He asked for it.
- He got shut down.
- He controlled the controllables.
- He got to work creating what he wanted.
- That’s the formula.
I call this Creative Persistence.
It’s a game-changer. Instead of getting stuck in disappointment or spinning his wheels, he found another way to bring his vision to life.
And in doing so, he gave me, his dad, a powerful reminder about how success is created.
When you want something in life, you’re going to hear “no.”
You will hit dead ends. People will doubt you, ignore you, overlook you.
But those obstacles don’t mean stop.
They mean adjust. They mean create. And that’s what McKay did.
Check out the video with him in action here…
Creative Persistence – https://youtu.be/nNNqLbrGtd4?si=45K5eEKZA3FcElzn
Mckay’s persistence reminded me of one of my all-time favorite poems.
If You Want a Thing Bad Enough
(Author Unkown)If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
To work day and night for it,
To give up your time, your peace and your sleep for it…If all that you dream and scheme is about it,
If life seems useless and worthless without it…
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want
With all your capacity, strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope, confidence and stern pertinacity…If neither cold, poverty, famine nor gout,
Nor sickness nor pain of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want…If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it.
Let that sink in.
If you want a thing bad enough, and you’re willing to get creative, to persist in ways others won’t, not just with effort, but with innovation, you will get it.
Just like McKay with his DIY basketball arcade.
And I want to ask you:
- What is it you really want?
- Are you clear on it?
- And when you hit resistance, do you persist creatively?
When the answer is “no,” are you throwing your hands up, or are you building your own version of the thing you’re after?
Creative persistence is about seeing the obstacle… and then finding the opportunity inside of it.
It’s about taking ownership, thinking differently, and executing with heart.
So whether you’re leading a sales team, building your business, raising kids, or trying to level up in life… take a page out of McKay’s playbook.
Be clear. Be persistent. Be creative.
And build your game.
Make it a great day!
Ben Ward
