Famous Failures

I recently found an essay on the merits of quitting that a former student wrote. I re-read it and found it even more powerful.

It reminded me of this



I also like this quote from some guy named Michael Jordan

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

And I really like this quote too -

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it." -- W.C. Fields

Now, we have a fancy term for quitting so it doesn't get a bad rap in our win-at-all costs society, it's called having an 'exit' strategy.

But it's still quitting. And people should not only know how to do it, but do more of it.

Why?

Because people strive too hard for actual happiness (getting what you think you want - or getting what advertisements make you think you want or need), as opposed to what one psychologist calls synthetic happiness (which is making do with what you get when you don't get that which you want).

How often do we strive for something that we think will make us happy? How often does the striving make us unhappy? What if we had an exit strategy in place to get the hell out of there if we are miserable . . . without being dubbed a quitter?


Here's his take on happiness -



And here is a superb Calvin and Hobbes that gets at the stigma around quitting. The cartoon makes such a grand statement, that I couldn't get the point across if I wrote an entire book on it. Be honest. You've been in Calvin shoes and felt the same way. Be honest.



Now, you tell me what is wrong with quitting.