When Quitting Could Be A Bad Idea

Between cutting your losses and playing to the final whistle

I was 18 when I read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. By this time, I was homeless and irreversibly severed from every meaningful family relationship. I slept on benches and worked as a factory hand on what was less than $1 per day at the time. Life was as hopeless and grim as it could get. There was no hope of having a decent future.

I can’t remember the circumstances that led to the discovery of Hills’ book or who recommended it. But certainly, reading that book was a transformative experience. One story stood out and kept ringing in my head — the man who quit too soon. Napoleon Hill told a story of two men who gave up on their gold-mining venture just three feet away from striking gold.

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

- Napoleon Hill

Power in a transformed mind

I was no gold miner. But I was in dire straits. By 18, life had taken everything I needed to succeed away from me. It seemed like life had me in a corner. Anywhere I went, all I saw was closed doors — sometimes even the windows were closed.

If life was a football league — I was on a losing streak and consistently getting relegated to the lower tier with each passing league season.

Napoleon Hill said, “No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind”. After reading Hill’s book and internalizing the above story, I knew I was never going to give up. From that moment on, I never wanted to be the man who gave up at the edge of a breakthrough.

I might have been waiting at the gate, knocking, and sometimes pushing— I wouldn’t give up before the gate finally opened.

Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.

- Ross Perot

Playing a losing game?

Are you facing a challenge right now and feel like giving up? Do you feel cornered by a situation that seems overwhelming?

Life throws us those curve balls every now and then. The challenge may get so intense and the defeat so crushing you feel like letting the opponent run away with the victory.

Many Nigerians can hardly forget the Atlanta 1996 Olympic games. That was the year the Olympic Eagles tagged “the Dream Team” won gold at the soccer event of the Olympic games.

The Nigerian team achieved that feat by beating Argentina 3–2 in the final game. As sweet as that final victory was, the most memorable game of the tourney was the semi-final tie with Brazil.

The Brazilian team had the full complement of an array of top performers. They had the likes of Roberto Carlos in defense, with Rivaldo, Ronaldo, and the great Bebeto upfront. The Nigerian team had its own fair share of superstars — Kanu Nwankwo and George Finidi had just won the UEFA Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam in 1995. The team also had several international stars including the mercurial Jay Jay Okocha, Dan Amokachi, Emmanuel Amunike, Taribo West, Uche Okechukwu, and Sunday Oliseh.

But it was hardly expected that the talented Nigerian team would withstand the superior firepower of Brazil — four-time senior world cup winners at the time.

Brazil opened the scoring but Nigeria equalized through an own goal from a Celestine Babayaro shot. Brazil quickly rallied to take the game almost beyond Nigeria with a 3–1 advantage.

For half of the game, Nigeria trailed Brazil with two goals deficit. By this time, Nigerians back home were switching off their television and going to bed. Only die-hard football fans would stay up in the dead of the night watching a painful annihilation of their team.

But it’s never over until it’s over!

In the 77th minute, substitute, Victor Ikpeba started the Nigerian renaissance taking the game to 3–2. The Brazilians were cruising to victory, while the Nigerian team labored on until the last few seconds of regular time.

The Nigerian Dream team refused to stop trying. As long as they kept on playing and pushing forward, their dream was alive.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

- Thomas Edison

In the 89th minute, Kanu Nwankwo scored a sleeky goal from an Okocha’s throw-in sending the game to extra-time. The Brazilians were rattled. The resilience of the Nigerian team paid off.

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

―Harriet Beecher Stowe

With the game leveled, the Brazilians were expected to come out in full force and kill the Nigerian dream during the extra-time. This was when FIFA introduced the now abolished golden goal rule. A goal on either side during extra-time would be the end of the game.

Kanu Nwankwo again produced the final magic four minutes into extra-time. It was a left-foot shot from the edge of the 18-yard box that broke the Brazilians’ hearts sending Nigerian football fans all over the world into a state of ecstasy.

Life can be like this — you are losing, and everything seems to be working against you. Sometimes, it looks like an uneven match. You simply don’t have enough resources to match the challenges. You may be wondering why it has to be you. This is when the temptation to quit weighs like a ton of bricks.

We don’t choose our opponents

Nobody has the power to choose their challenges. This is a fact of life which is also true in any sports competition. When a team enters a tournament, they can expect to compete against the best to become the best. The Nigerian team would have preferred not to play such a strong team like Brazil. But such an option was not available to them. The fixtures for the final rounds unfold as the tournament progresses.

The personal challenges I faced as a teenager were based on specific family circumstances. I had no choice in the matter. Had I been born into a different family, I bet my life experiences would have been different.

There are some life battles we don’t choose — our battles find us, and we must engage to stand a chance of making any progress.

Defeat is not a postcode

I don’t totally believe that quitters never win or winners never quit. I think quitters can win if they try again or keep trying.

There is something very instructive about conceding a goal in a football match. Each time, the goalkeeper, or the player closest to the goal post will have to bend down and pick the ball. Not only that. Someone will have to walk or run with the ball to the center circle to resume play.

Don’t settle in a place of defeat. Pick yourself up, resume the game, and keep playing.

Conceding a goal in a football match does not condemn the team to defeat. Each time a team concedes a goal, the game resets with a fresh opportunity to level up scores.

The point is that defeat can be reversed if you have the courage to keep playing.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie

There might be a way out

It may appear like you’ve exhausted your potentials. But if you keep playing, you might discover untapped opportunities — it might be a small window of opportunity. You are more likely to find a way out of a problem if you hang in long enough to understand the problem better.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

– Albert Einstein

You might have done all — but one more

The hardest part of every challenge is when you’ve done all. You’ve thrown everything into the game. You’ve tried hard to make that thing work or to change the adverse situation. You are probably running on empty but the scores are still not in your favor.

That is when the hard work starts. Holding on with hope for a positive outcome is the hardest part of it.

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

— Newt Gingrich

It’s a lot of pain retrieving the ball from behind your goal line each time and taking the long walk to the center circle to continue play.

Champions don’t give up; they get up!

― Sanjo Jendayi

Just keep going…

The men in Napoleon Hill’s story stopped digging because the output did not justify the investment of time and resources. On the other hand, the Nigerian Dream Team kept going at the star-studded Brazilians even though they were losing, and were expected to lose.

It can be nerve-wracking trying to find the balance between when to quit and when to plunge on.

Take whatever your situation as a game at hand, and let’s assume you are not happy with the result so far.

Here is the deal.

If you are still breathing, if there is one minute on the clock, if you can make one more move; you might just outclass the opposition.

Winston Churchill is credited with famously saying that “if you are going through hell, keep going”.

I don’t want to be that man that quits 3 seconds, or 3 minutes, or 3 days too soon. So I will keep pushing forward until the dream begins to shine through into my reality.