Never, Never Give Up

Never, never, never give up -Winston Churchill

We give a lot of lip service to the phrase “never give up.” But what sometimes happens? We give up. We quit because it’s too hard. We quit because it takes too long or results don’t come quick enough.

What I’ve found with persistence is that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Simply look at the people who built crummy web sites back in the early 90′s, but persisted at updating them and paying for hosting. Back then, you’d say the guy would have to be crazy to stick with a site like that. But now, fast forward 10-12 years and we see the site, domain name and traffic are worth more and command higher respect.

Starting and then sticking (even if not not a perfect direction) is better than not starting at all.

In looking at my career, there were times when I just wanted to drop out of IT. There is a lot of pressure and it’s thankless in many ways. The only reason you hear from someone is when something isn’t working right. Otherwise, you are just the creepy dude who hangs out in the back office.

But sticking through the tough times as well as the up times has paid off royally.

The tough times have revolutionized my negotiation skills

The tough times have taught me how to keep cool under pressure.

The tough times have taught me how to think, plan and act instead of act, think and fix.

These are all very important lessons.

What have the good times taught me? Sadly very little in comparison. The good times teach me that it is possible to have a career where work doesn’t seem so much like work and is actually fun.

That’s why you should never give up.

BUT….

Let’s be clear. I’ve had many different types of IT jobs before I started really enjoying it. I’ve been a web designer, project manager, Sharepoint and SQL admin, networking consultant and many more. It may appear I “gave up” when I dropped out of Cisco training. Sure, it would have paid well, but to me routers are as boring as watching grass grow.

You may think I “gave up” when I sold my Pocket PC site. That isn’t accurate either. Giving up on one thing to pursue something closer – or more in line – with your personality is not quitting. It is adjusting. It’s ok to adjust your aim, in fact it’s recommended at times.

We’ve all heard if there is a will there’s a way. What if that’s true?

One example of this is Marc Griffin. Two years ago, he appeared on a reality show called American Inventor. Griffin was on the show to convince the judges that his invention, a game called Bullet Ball was America’s greatest invention.

The judges, however, felt otherwise. In what turned out to be like witnessing a car wreck, they told Griffin to give up on the dream. Judge Mary Lou Quinlan said “You’ve told us that you’ve given twenty-six years of your life to this game. I think that’s more of a life than a man can give to a dream. Please get your life back.” You can watch the segment and cringe here.

Griffin did not listen to the judges. And although it’s not a game I think I would like, it appears the judges underestimated its potential. BulletBall is gaining ground with people who have disabilities (including Vetrans with Disabilites) because it’s a sport you can play from a wheelchair.

And although it might just be marketing, it appears drunken college kids like playing BulletBall too.

This is not an endoresement of BulletBall, but instead an endorsement on never giving up. Personally, unlike Griffin, I believe I would have adjusted the gameplay somewhere along the road. Or used my game marketing experience to promote another game. But even with BulletBall in its original, simple state, persistence appears to have paid off.

We don’t have enough stories like these. However, I am sure many of you have had a time when you thought about giving up, but you stuck with it and success surely followed. I welcome you to post your story in the comments below so we all might get a boost of “stickwithitiveness.”

This is tip #101 of 101 Goal Setting Breakthroughs: A 31 Day Blog Series That Will Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever! Subscribe to my free RSS feed to get the rest of the series and never miss a tip!

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