Never Ever Give Up

The life of Thomas Edison is a lesson to inspire anyone who thinks giving up is an option. Let me share his story with you. December 1914 he had worked for 10 years on a storage battery. This had greatly strained his finances. This particular evening spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room. Within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records and film, and other flammable goods were in flames. Fire companies from eight surrounding towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the water pressure so low that the attempt to douse the flames was futile. Everything was destroyed. Edison was 67. With all his assets going up in a whoosh (although the damage exceeded two million dollars, the buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were made of concrete and thought to be fireproof), would his spirit be broken?  

The inventor's 24-year old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father. He finally found him, calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the wind. "My heart ached for him," said Charles. "He was 67--no longer a young man--and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, 'Charles, where's your mother?' When I told him I didn't know, he said, 'Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.'" The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew." Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.

This story portrays the importance of being persistent in whatever you do. Sometimes things go wrong and not as planned. Sometimes challenges come knocking seeming overwhelming. But it is important to keep at whatever it is you are doing and to be optimistic. For every great achievement, there are setbacks and failures at some point. Your story will be no different except you settle for less. But as long as you aim big and remain focus, hurdles will come up and would be overcome. However, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade out of it. It is never over until you call it over. Stand up and win over any discouraging feeling, challenge and unexpected happenstances. Don’t give up now not even later.  If you give up too soon, you will never know what you will be missing, keep going and never quite. Remember, many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they quite.

Well, you may cry if need be, moan, whine, snivel, lament, grumble, complain but never ever give up. Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe the only reason why it will.  Success…