Don't give up in the middle

It's a little annoying seeing these repeated videos on Facebook or LinkedIn with the common theme "never give up" where some animal endlessly fights for their life and survives, or some athlete just keeps going despite facing almost certain loss. In both there isn't much of a choice. What do you expect an animal to do when facing death? Sit down, cross their legs, give up and die? And in sport if you're getting thrashed in front of a big crowd you might as well give it your all - even if it's for the sake of drama - you might get trounced but the crowd will love you and if someone posts it with a “never give up” heading on social media you have a decent chance of being immortalised.

But in many situations in real life it's very important to know when to give up, and when not to. "Never give up" is often terrible advice, it’s often great advice. Think of a mother would be going into the labour room to deliver her baby she nurtured and nursed inside her womb for 9 months and more is going to bear the pain similar to breaking 20 bones at the same time, just in order to give birth to her progeny, she never ever gives up whatever happens to her she makes sure to deliver the baby into the world come what may.

Contrary to general thinking, it is true that everybody gives up sometime in life, sooner or later. Think about the likes of Bill Gates even had to give billions of dollars to his wife of alimony just to be free from his broken marriage. Everyone even gives up the only thing one values the most, life, sooner or later. The only choice available is when. The sooner is always the best policy but we are caught in a web of attachments, with persons, things and even thoughts. We want to see our parents happy, our spouse and children happy. We imagine that they would be happy if we work hard and earn more. Just ask them once.

Do you remember the famous story of Ramayana in ancient Indian scenario when Valya, a way side robber in jungles, once holds up Narada the sage and demands all his valuables else face death. The sage asks him why was he doing such a sin? Valya tells him for welfare of his family. Are you sure they want to share your sins? Valya finds to his dismay, they did not. He then stops being a robber and does "tapa" (meditation) as advised by the sage. Valya emerges as Sage Valmiki who then wrote the whole Ramayana himself.

Philosophically thinking, our attachment is of two types. Raga (likes) and Dvesha (dislikes). We want more and more of what we like, this is an infinite demand and therefore is never met and this leads to our Duhkha (sufferings). We do not want anything of what we dislike, but we can’t wish those things away. This again is an insatiable demand which leads to our Duhkha. So withdrawing from our attachments is really the way to bliss. Some realize this sooner some later.

Remember when you were a child, why did you learn walking when you "failed" many times to even stand up? Why did you learn to write or read when you had hard time learning as a child, perhaps? Why do you attempt anything knowing pretty well that there is a 50:50 chance of failure? Assuming you have learned cycling, why did you learn it when you "failed" and fell many times and perhaps even injured yourself, while learning? When you were learning to ride a bicycle how many times have you fallen to the ground and bruised your knees, only to get up again and start riding the bicycle till you become a regular?

Life is a giant wheel of success and failure, ups and downs. Its very easy give up and say I'm a failure. Fight for success. And you'll taste it. In fact any success that comes to you without few failures will not give you much satisfaction either. Lastly there is no person who hasn't failed in something. And you aren't an exception. The more you fail the more determined you should be because don't forget you are getting more and more experience and knowledge in that field and your chances of success only keep on increasing with every succeeding attempt.

Let us look at an inspiring life story of Jack Ma. Failed Primary school test 2 times. Failed Middle school 3 times. Failed College Entrance exam 2 times. Applied to Harvard 10 times, and got rejected every time. Turned down by more than 30 Jobs. When KFC came to China he applied for a job there, along with 24 other people, and guess what, he was the only one to be rejected. At this point of time, any person will lose all hope and will enter into the world of depression and anxiety.

But this man left no stone unturned to become what he is today. He is none other than Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, which is a well-known company. His net worth as of 2017 is estimated at around 34 billion USD. He is also the richest man in China. And this is all because of his attitude of never giving up. A famous quote by Jack Ma: “Today is difficult, tomorrow is much more difficult, the day after tomorrow is very beautiful, but most die tomorrow evening”. If so, whenever you feel distressed, and think that you can’t succeed, Just remember, if he can do that why not you. Cheers!