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Everyone fails. How you react to failure is what defines you and your path to success. While “never giving up” seems to be the favored mantra, “giving up”, or as some say, “quitting” sometimes is the best course of action.
If you had a dream of flying like a bird without the assistance of a machine or a contraption, and jumped off the roof of a barn 40 times, making no adjustments in process, would giving up be the prudent choice? Or would you continue to make the jumps, crutching yourself on the mantra of “Never Give Up”?
Back in my early 20’s, I joined a network marketing company called Amway. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. One of their proverbial mantras for motivation was “Never Give Up”. After spending 2 years of “Never Giving Up”, spending a fortune in time and money, and assessing my time investment at around 80 cents per hour, I finally “Gave Up”.
It was one of the best choices I ever made.
I wonder, were would I be today if I hadn’t made that choice to quit? Many of those same people are still “Never Giving Up” driven by the dream of flying like a bird off the roof of a barn. The only thing that ends-up flying is the expenditure of their life’s time, not realizing that they are contributing to someone else’s Fastlane plan.
So when is “Giving Up” or quitting the optimal course of action?
I use the following guidelines to assess the choice of “giving up”.
1) What you are doing is no longer enjoyable.
I hated MLM. I lost credibility with close friends. I felt manipulated. I felt I was apart of a cattle call. I realized that a true fastlane plan isn’t executed side-by-side with thousands of others, that is, unless you are atop of the chain of execution. I frequently preach, you don’t want to join an MLM, you want to create one. Don’t buy franchises, sell them.
FASTLANE TIP
Pure Fastlane plans are architected in a structure where you are #1 in the food chain ,,, a shark in the ocean of opportunity.
2) Your goal is re-analyzed and deemed impossible.
Jumping off a roof-top without flying gear is impossible, no matter how many times you try. You can spend your lifetime trying to accomplish the feat and never succeed. Quitting is the best choice.
3) Your failures drive you into another direction.
Using our rooftop example, let’s say you’ve made 40 jumps off the barn and keep injuring yourself on every jump. To prevent further injury, you create a cushioned landing zone made of a special concoction of hay, dirt, sand, and polymer rubber. This new cushioned landing zone negates the impact of your jumps to zero force, allowing you to jump hundreds of times without injury.Then a light bulb goes off; your cushionized landing zone has many commercial applications and you decide to pursue its development, giving up on flying off rooftops.
Failures which drive you into new directions is often the most productive inventing concept in human history. What products do you use today that are the result of failures and accidents?
- The heart pacemaker.
- Microwave ovens.
- Penicillin.
- Vulcanized rubber.
These are all inventions driven by the result of failure. In failure, the inventors had the fortitide to recognize when failure should drive you into a new direction … get off the road you’re on, and get on a new one.
Yes, giving up sometimes is the best choice — just never give up on your dreams.
Peace,
MJ DeMarco
When I was in my 20's, they laughed and said I was nuts. "MJ! You're dreaming!" Then, I got the last laugh. I retired in my 30's and now live a dream. Those same people now whore their life away for a paycheck only to reclaim their salvation on the weekend. With a correctly executed Fastlane plan, everyday of your life can be your weekend.
