I shared this quote the other day and I felt the need to break it down a bit further to really grasp what it is saying. The quote is from Napoleon Hill, author of the bestselling book Think and Grow Rich, and it goes:
"Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do."
This quote speaks of a passage that everyone must endure on the path to success. We've all felt defeat, some perhaps repeatedly, and I'm quite sure we've all felt some form of failure, too. There are levels of failure. Some are caused by the poor choices we make and others are caused by other factors, many of which are the result of not planning properly. I choose to discuss the failures associated with poor choices. I know that failure.
So, to amend the quote a bit, "When failure overtakes a man, the easiest thing to do is quit." But what does it really mean to quit? You can quit on life altogether; you can quit trying to reach your existing goals; or you can quit setting goals to reach. It is one of the saddest things in life to see someone who has quit. No matter what he has quit.
I resolve to never quit. Life is too precious to quit. My life is too precious to quit. My goals are too important to me and the world to quit. So, in looking back at Hill's quote, the key to avoid this is to avoid letting these failures overtake you. Quitting is the path of least resistance for those who have been overtaken. There is another saying that I repeat to myself time and again. "I am bigger than anything that happens to me." I cannot be overtaken by any event or failure, even if it is the result of my own poor choices, because I am bigger than any event. My life is a journey and this failure is not my destination.
So, the point of this edition is this: no matter how difficult things may seem at the moment develop the mindset right now that you will never have a desire or a thought to quit. It's that simple. If you don't entertain the thought then it won't become an option. If it isn't an option to quit you won't allow yourself to be overtaken. There's no "out" but there is always a seed of opportunity within the failure. Spend your time searching for that rather than looking for the moment you can quit.
