The Thin Line between Quitters and Winners
How winners must learn to quit effectively
In a monastery, a young monk approached the Father Superior, who heads the establishment. As was the custom, each monk got a task they performed everyday till they died.
To his surprise, the Father Superior gave him a metal rod and asked him to go to the garden and plant this piece of rod in the ground.
His task was to water it every day.
The monk did as he was instructed and watered the piece of metal rod every day.
After twenty years of repeating this task, he woke up one morning to some chaos in the garden.
The piece of metal road had sprouted and was growing into a beautiful plant.
Beautiful stories such as the above were told to us to teach the virtues of obedience and consistency.
Lessons like this were very popular and are still quite popular to this day.
I have read countless clichés from very popular authors. These clichés still echo through event centres as motivational speakers bellow in classical Michael Angelo stances.
“Winners are not Quitters!”
“Tough times don’t last, but tough people do”
“You are addressed the way you dress’.
I’m sure you’ve heard your fair share of those.
These words sound so true until you spend some time analysing them. Sometimes, they fall short.
But one that has stood out lately would be the idea that winners never quit. This assertion can not be further from the truth.
If I have learned anything over the years, it is that every winner must be an effective quitter.
Imagine owning a car. This is your dream car. You have longed for and saved to buy one.
Then you finally buy it.
But it falls short of your expectations. However, it’s still the sports car of your dreams from your youthful days.
The reality.
You are six feet six inches and weigh a whopping one hundred and eighty-five kilograms. It is impractical for you to drive the car all the time.
Do you invest in shedding some weight until you are the right fit to drive the car? Think of all the efforts that must go into making that happen?
As it concerns this dream, quit or win?
I have come to the realisation that many successful people are able to tell if a thing is working or not. If it’s working, let it work. Else move along.
Once I started to practice this, I realised that decision-making became easier. What was the purpose of insisting on doing things a certain way?
The best universities in the world brag about their low acceptance rates. This means that they are happy to reject as many people as they possibly can.
They literally turn away from anything that looks questionable.
Again, let’s consider the popular Shark Tank programs. The Sharks will quickly turn away from investment opportunities that may not work. Sometimes, they are wrong, but most times, they are right.
What I find most interesting is how fast they decide that an opportunity is not worthwhile.
In our lives, we are faced with choices every day. The decisions we make may have the propensity to help us succeed or fail.
I don’t think it matters whether we make decisions fast or slow, but I think that making that decision is a must.
If the decision has to be about quitting on a project, a person or some plan that no longer serves us, then do it already.
If we never quit on things, we might spend our entire lives chasing the same projects and ventures.
Remember that a thing is not always a good fit because you want it.
What should matter in the long run should be, if the result from things we refuse to quit on will make our lives better.
The ability to quit is a blessing. Do it fast and move on.
Back to our initial story.
It has been fifteen more years, and the iron sprout has become a full-grown iron tree. It blossomed and started fruiting.
The young monk was now older and had become the Father Superior of the monastery.
When the fruits were finally picked, they were lumps of metal that were no use to the monastery or the monks.
The Father Superior ordered the iron tree be cut down.
