Never Give Up

Jack Ma failed his university entrance exam 3 times. He applied to 30 jobs and was rejected from all of them. KFC hired all 24 people who applied except for him. He was rejected by Harvard 10 times. At the time of writing this article, Jack Ma of Ali Baba has a net worth of $38.1 billion. What changed? What took place between his greatest failures and his greatest accomplishments? Whatever it was, it was only a product of his perseverance and determination. Whatever any of us are going through right now...and whatever challenges we are facing in the business world (and other life situations), I think we can all be greatly encouraged by these words of Jack Ma: "If you don't give up, you still have a chance."

Just this past week, I heard a heart breaking story about a guy here in Charlotte, NC who committed suicide back in 2014. It had all started around the time of the 2008 real estate market crash. This was a period in which the major financial markets lost more than 30% of their value. Many people remember this era as a mortgage crisis and a credit crisis caused by unprecedented growth and consumer debt. This man in particular had bought up a ton of real estate that lost so much of it's value overnight, he had to sell it and take a great financial loss. From that point, the depression began to set in. He would go on to spend the next several years locking himself away in his home while his wife continued to work and pay the bills. In attempts to get back on his feet, he eventually shook off enough of the depression to get a job...and around 2012 he decided to go back to school. Unfortunately, his efforts in schooling were met with much adversity and through another series of challenging events, he must have decided that life just wasn't worth living anymore. This man gave up. Not only did he give up on his career goals, but he also gave up on his life and family. I think we've all heard disheartening stories just like this...and I think we all know that when a man decides to end his life, there are many more deep-seeded issues at hand. But if I'm being completely honest here, I can't say that there haven't been days where I felt so much like a failure that I began wondering what I was really worth. There have definitely been moments in my life where I felt so defeated that I questioned if my existence really held enough value to continue; and from talking to many others over the years, I've seen that this sort of thing is a common thread among those who have sunken into the deepest valleys of failure. Failure can take people to a heavily darkened place where they feel very alone, extremely inadequate and incredibly worthless. Fortunately, most of us would never actually allow ourselves to resort to the extreme measure of suicide; but there are many who would definitely put their career goals and ambitions to death. The only question is, how many times can your dreams get shot down before you just stop dreaming altogether?

"How many times can your dreams get shot down before you just stop dreaming altogether?"

This is where quotes like the one provided by Jack Ma can be of great benefit...if we apply them. This is the biggest difference between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Without wisdom, knowledge is useless. Jack Ma states "If you don't give up, you still have a chance." It's one thing to appreciate that quote and see the value in it. It's an entirely different thing to take action and bring the actual "value" into your own life. This is probably why he followed these words by saying "Giving up is the greatest failure." The opposite of this would be "Moving forward is the greatest accomplishment." Essentially, if you're at the bottom of the valley of failure, then the only way you can stay there is if you refuse to take another chance. As long as you're willing to pick yourself up and try again or try something new or try in a different way, then you will never achieve the "greatest failure." You can and will fail at many things in life, but in applying the knowledge of moving forward and taking more chances, you will never remain in that state.

I am writing this article today to send out a blast of encouragement to all my fellow entrepreneurs and business men and women who may feel beaten up and/or defeated by the heavy winds and waves of any particular challenging field. There are many difficult industries out there...many of which can have high barriers to entry and ultimately provide us with very slim opportunities for success. But if you love what you do, are good at what you do and have any kind of chance at making it work, then I encourage you to keep working and persevere. Even if it means starting back at square-one and perhaps rethinking your marketing strategy or branding. Maybe it means going about it a different way. Or maybe it means doing a little more research and discovering new and innovative ways to improve your service. If you read my article titled "A 10,000:1 Failure-to-Success Ratio", you might remember me saying that "perseverance" doesn't necessarily mean that we continue spinning our wheels in a situation where it is clear that we aren't going anywhere. I also stated in this article that "there is a fine line between perseverance and stupidity." We have to know when it's time to try something different. And sometimes the whole idea of "not giving up" means doing something completely different. If you are in a business venture that is literally going nowhere...and you have exhausted every last resource and are beginning to spend more money than you are making, then it might be time to lay that particular venture to rest while continuing forth with another venture that may hold much more opportunity for success. You can always go back to previous ventures and try again later down the road. But just like Jack Ma, you might have to try a lot of different things until you find your niche. Just like myself, you might have to dissolve one company to start another. No matter what the case may be, I want to encourage you to keep dreaming, keep trying, keep taking chances and keep striving for for your goals. You cannot fail at everything. Nobody fails at everything. With enough hard work and determination, something is bound to work for you. Perhaps the most challenging part is just figuring out what that is...

In closing, I would like to give you a piece of homework. As previously stated above, ask yourself this question: "How many times can my dreams get shot down before I stop dreaming?" Write down this question on a piece of paper and see if you can come up with a legit number. Whatever that number is, whether it's 5, 10, 50 or 100; make a commitment today to take that many chances on that many dreams. Go ahead and predetermine that if the next x-amount of dreams fail, you will continue on to another. At the end of your life, at least you will be able to say you lived an adventurous one. As a dreamer myself, I can promise you this: There actually is something worse than living a life full of failed attempts; and that is...living a life full of no attempts at all.