Monday Morning

Motivation    5/23/2011

THE POSITIVE PLACE. SALES MOTIVATION AND PERSONAL GROWTH

Give up early

I am a sometime fan of the weekly TV show “Deadliest Catch.” I really don’t know why I’m a fan -- most weeks are like every other week. The show takes place in the fishing waters surrounding Alaska, and involves men on fishing boats catching crab. They do it in all sorts of weather, freezing conditions, high waves, and no sleep.

Despite that, the show most weeks boils down to a standard routine: find the crab, catch the crab, try to stay alive, and get upset at one another. That is the nature of this branch of reality TV.

Crew members hire onto the boats, and for the first little while, they are dubbed as “greenhorns,” usually have some of the nastier jobs on the boat, and try to stay alive. Last night’s show (as I write this) involved a greenhorn who gave up three hours into the trip. He spent the remainder of the trip watching movies or sunning himself on the Lido deck, or something like that.

Now, I suspect that if I were forced to be on one of those boats, I would be seasick long before the boat left the dock. But his example allows us to address a common problem -- giving up early.

Churchill, as you know, is famous for his speech: “Never give up. Never. Never. Never. Never.” That’s pretty much all of the speech right there, and it typifies the man more than any longer speech ever could. It shows how and why Churchill rose to be one of history’s greatest leaders, because he persisted until he won.

I’m reminded of the Knute Rockne quote: “The team that won’t be beat, can’t be beat.” That’s also the “never give up” sentiment.

Then there’s this quote, from Calvin Coolidge: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

What does giving up get for you? Not a darn thing. I know that. Too much of my early life involved giving up.

But what does persistence give you? It makes all the difference in the world.

Sure, there are some retreats that must be made, some challenges that are too tough, and some choices that turn out to be bad ones. There’s nothing wrong with re-evaluating your position, and taking new roads. But when we develop the habit of giving up, it’s a one of the hardest habits to break.

Why is it so difficult to break the habit of giving up? Because giving up is cheap and easy in the short run.

The long run is entirely different.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.