Never, ever quit

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Author Stephen King

We know plenty of people who have set out on a particular path only to quit when they are faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This is true in virtually all all human endeavors. Perhaps it is in pursuit of higher education. Sure, you got admitted to the college you wanted to attend. Then you began your studies and along the way began to feel insecure. Would you pass all of your courses? What would happen to your scholarship money if you failed a course? How the hell are you going to pay next semesters tuition? Ah geez you got sick and missed two weeks of classes. And the challenges just keep right on building until one day you decide that maybe this dream just wasn’t right for you. You were seeking success, real success and you thought you had it in hand and then along came trials, tribulations and ever escalating doubt until you finally just pulled the plug and walked away.

Or perhaps it is the matter of employment. Everyone is telling you that this is the best the job market has been in years and yet after twelve job interviews you still haven’t received one offer. Then finally you do get a job but shortly after starting to work it just doesn’t feel right. It is an experience well below your expectations and with each passing day just getting up and going to work gets harder and harder and harder until finally you simply quit. Now what?

Steve Jobs (Wikipedia)

And this list of challenges is infinite and unending and every single human on earth has his or her own experiences. But it is not so much a question of how to avoid getting into such tough situations but rather how do you handle them? I firmly believe that the great Sir Winston Churchill had the right answer when he said: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

So you say what the heck is Churchill saying, that we should all go from failure to failure with joy and enthusiasm? Not exactly. The simple truth is that we all face challenges on a regular basis.  Sometimes they prevent us from achieving a particular goal or series of goals. It happens to everyone, including the most successful people. But those who ultimately win are those who simply refuse to quit.  Consider this:

Steven Spielberg was rejected three times by the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television. Stephen King’s first novel Carriewas rejected 30 times before it was published. Once published it quickly became a reader’s favorite and spawned four movies and a Broadway musical.

The Beatles were rejected by Decca Records executive Dick Rowe because he said “They had no future in the business.” Wonder how Dick Rowe’s career developed? Steve Jobs was fired by Apple Computer the company he launched. Fortunately for Apple he was invited back and helped Apple achieve massive success.

After only one performance Elvis Presley was fired by Jimmy Denny, manager of the “Grand Ole Opry.” Denny reportedly told Presley: “You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.”

J. K. Rowling was rejected by a dozen publishers before the highly successful launch of her Harry Potter series.

Sir Winston Churchill (Wikipedia)

Every one of these people could easily have simply said “F it” and walked away. But knowingly or not they all subscribed to the wisdom of Churchill and went from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm and thus obviously became highly successful, each in their own way.

So perhaps now armed with this insight when you are next confronted with seemingly insurmountable challenges along your personal path to success and happiness you will have the courage to simply never, ever quit and in so doing you will greatly elevate your opportunity for achieving great success. It may be a cliché’ but it is also absolutely true: Winners never quit and quitters never win.

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Top photo, from Wikipedia: Elvis Presley, The Beatles and J.K. Rowling