Giving up so easily

During a meeting recently, due to some differences in opinion and perception, an influential acquaintance decided to quit his position of responsibility because he couldn’t get along with others and couldn’t seem to get his point across. Despite multiple trials, the crowd just couldn’t understand his perception of things and even though they didn’t intend to fire him, he decided to resign to avoid unnecessary conflicts with everybody else. This happened to the surprise of everybody, especially considering the fact that he was so influential and his opinion was never underestimated.

It will come as no surprise the fact that this rift happened over budget management with the divergent perception of both conservative and liberal persons. I don’t want to talk about what caused the problem, but rather I want to talk about what it means to give up so easily.

The good side of things

One major advantage which comes with giving up so easily is that there is an instant relief, especially when you are in a position of high stress, where each of your decisions could spell disaster. This doesn’t just apply to my acquaintance but really to everybody in a position of authority. The first thing anybody in a position of authority tries to figure out is the impact of their actions and whether they have a way out. In some cases you want to be there, in others you have to be there, and yet again in some others you don’t have to be there.

Depending on the scenario, you might or might not work as hard to give it your best. I understand the choice he made, it was one where he privileged peace and understanding over everything else, not wanting to perpetuate the conflicts any further he decided to get out of the way.

This happens very often, especially when there is a fight over power, each person trying to assert their dominance and push forward their ideas. Right or wrong can’t be determined in an article, but rather is subject to the circumstances.

The bad side of things

The first thing giving up so easily does is totally undermine all the work the person has done so far. Whether you were left with a choice or not, whether you wanted to avoid further escalation or not, giving up so easily makes everything you’ve done look meaningless. I think the most striking thing for me in his decision was that it showed the success of the group wasn’t more important than his personal interests. You can imagine being in a position of leadership and your personal interests super seed the success of the collective.

Giving up so easily also creates distress in the minds of everybody else who depended on you, whether it's indirectly or directly, whether it is the person looking at you from a distance and being inspired to do the same, or it is all the other things which rely on you. When you give up on that position, you also give up on all those people who are counting on you.

Giving up so easily equally shows you are weak, and it doesn’t take very much to make you fold, to break you or to put you in difficulty. Most people tend to dissociate events based on the circumstances, but humans are creatures of habit, what you do in one scenario very often happens in others. So giving up here shows you will also give up in other scenarios whenever things get tough, basically it depicts your character clearly.

Conclusion

I definitely have mixed feelings about it all, but one thing I could never recommend to anybody is to be a quitter and for the door to be their first option. It's easy to quit, it's easy to say, I won’t do this anymore and let it become the problem of another person, but easy choices often create difficult circumstances for everybody involved. Only choose to quit when that becomes the only path to success.

Thanks for reading ??