QUIT TO WIN

To quit or not to quit has always been a tricky question.

"Winners Never Quit and Quitters Never Win", said Vince Lombardi. and the decision to quit can be one of the hardest you’ll ever have to make.?

In spite of being well aware of the fact that gambling doesn’t merit any of the Kshatrya (king/ruling class) qualities, Yudhistira, the wisest Pandava prince, accepted to play the game of dice. He knew that the wise always advised not to play the game of dice with an expert, like Sakuni (uncle of Duryodhana, the Kaurava Prince). Game of dice was the weakness of Yudhistira. Sakuni was aware of the weakness of Yudhistira. He lured Yudhistira into playing the game of dice by praising him as a great warrior and hence he should take chances as the great warriors do. Shakuni emphasised that it is a mark of a warrior to accept the challenge. Swayed by the praise and challenge Yudhistira played, without quitting in due time, till he lost everything including his brothers and wife. Pandavas lost everything and were subjected to “Vanavaas” (living in the jungle) and “Agnyatavaas” (Princes in exile without being detected).?

Knowing when to quit is crucial. It is futile to persist when the direction is wrong. It is illogical to persevere on a path, without quitting, to reach nowhere. “Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt”, said Seth Godin in his book, The Dip. People who stick to their futile processes by committing same mistakes and refuse to quit generally land up as losers.

“Optimism makes you less likely to walk away while not actually increasing your chances of success. That means that being overly optimistic will make you stick to things longer that aren’t worthwhile. Better to be well calibrated. Life’s too short to spend your time on opportunities that are no longer worthwhile.” ?“Grit, or perseverance, is not always a virtue and may result in a fixation on unrealistic or dangerous goals”, said Annie Duke in her book Quit.

Yudhistira failed to quit and hence lost everything. He was overwhelmed by emotions, failed to think rationally, lacked the foresight to identify what will go wrong in the future, and didn’t take the wise decision to quit.

“Success does not lie in sticking to things. It lies in picking the right thing to stick to and quitting the rest”, opines?Annie Duke in her book?Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. “Persistence is not always the best decision, certainly not absent context. And context changes”, she says. “A poker table, it turns out, is a very good place to learn about the upside of quitting,” she discovered. “Optimal quitting might be the most important skill separating great players from amateurs”. She argues that the best decision makers are the best quitters.

Jhonty Rhodes, arguably the greatest fielder in the game of cricket was selected to South Africa hockey team for Olympics. However South Africa couldn’t qualify in 1992 and he missed out representing his national team in 1996 Olympics owing to a hamstring injury. He quit hockey and switched to cricket. The rest is history. He proved to be one of the most valuable cricketers for South African cricket team. Today he is one of the coaches of one of the IPL team.

Winners are fully self-aware. They are adept in their understanding of what they are up to. They are aware that quitting a particular thing “isn’t really quitting” but changing tracks to something else which offers a better result to their efforts.

“Make a commitment to resign your job every year, unless your current job is the best one. When you are stuck in a rut or simply not sure if your current job is the best choice, once a year, on the date of your choosing, commit to yourself that your will quit your job unless staying put is the best possible choice for you at the given time”, says Chris Guillebeau the author of “Born for this”.

“Never give up” is bad advice. Real winners don’t hesitate to walk away from an unsuccessful venture. Contrary to popular belief, if you want to win, you shouldn’t always just keep going. You should regroup and try something totally different. “Winners never quit, and quitters never win” is a lie. To win, sometimes you need to find a new game to play”, he opines.

It is a given that we must persist and pursue if something is working for us whether career, job, or business. One can continue investing time and effort. If for some reason things aren’t moving in the intended direction, then, maybe it’s the right time to rework the strategy and quit to change tracks.

Develop a great understanding about yourself and the circumstances. Keep your emotions under check. Develop balanced thinking. Seek advice. Read the situation without getting biased. Take responsibility and accountability. Evaluate your position and stance, identifying the range of reasonable possible outcomes. It is futile to toil without any progress devoid of the expected value for any course of action. Take decision to walk out if it isn’t working. And do it every year, if it is required as said by Chris Guillebeau.?

When to quit is always a nagging question. One always feels that he/she has quit early. Be courageous to identify what isn’t working and quit to change the tracks to be a winner.?

“If you feel like you’ve got a close call between quitting and persevering, it’s likely that quitting is the better choice.” ―?Annie Duke.

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