One of my favourite motivational tapes is an interview with Charles Givens, an exceedingly wealthy, happy and inspiring man who has spent a lot of time helping others to live their life successfully. His childhood was a disaster - he was sick, his parents went bankrupt and both turned into alcoholics. But he adhered to the principle of what he calls TTR - Take Total Responsibility and by the time he was 25 he had set up some very successful businesses and leveraged these to buy some land and build a recording studio. Everything was going wonderfully well when the studio burned down and he learned that by some quirk the land title was not yet transferred to his name and the insurance company wouldn't pay up.
He says that he stood in the smoldering ashes and didn't know whether he was going to faint, cry or throw up. As he stood with his eyes closed he realised that he'd reached one of the most important milestones in his life - if he could lose everything he had in one day and it didn't ruin his attitude then from that moment on he would be unstoppable. And that's exactly what happened. He says he had the belief that he could do anything and once he got over the fear of loss then he wasn't afraid to risk disappointment either. That didn't prevent him from making and losing another few million before he learned how to stop losing it! - but he just kept going through all the mistakes
This story illustrates a well known phenomenon that often the greatest success comes just one step after the greatest defeat - when you're in a tight place and it seems you don't have the strength to keep going the tide suddenly turns. There are lots of other examples of how persistence pays off. In Sydney of course we have the story of Paul Cave and "Bridge Climb". Paul pursued his dream for 8 difficult years before succeeding at bringing about what is now Australia's most successful tourist attraction. (The locals don't mind going up there either!)
I've been in business for myself for the past 16 years and I can't pretend it's been easy. But if I'd quit you wouldn't be reading this article and I wouldn't have the freedom to live the lifestyle I choose and to do extremely satisfying work using all my skills and talents.
I do think there is a time when we have to cut our losses, decide our goal isn't viable and retire gracefully from the pursuit of what we want - and that time is when passion, enthusiasm and commitment is no longer there. However if you're still excited about reaching a goal, get out of the groove and try a different strategy - we're often just plugging away with the wrong strategy. Sometimes we need to take time out and then come back refreshed to take another approach.
I'll leave you with the last verse of a poem I have framed at home:
"Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and you never can tell how close you are. It may be near when it seems so far. So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit. It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."