When is the right time to quit, to give up on that thing you started? Maybe the answer is not a universal one and no matter how things turn out, there’s value in the experience.

Giving up, quitting on something is kind of frowned upon, isn’t it?

I mean, there seems to be this popular notion in western industrialised society that to kill something that’s not working is a terrible thing.

It seems there’s virtue in keeping something alive that’s dying.

It might bring you to your knees but by Jasus, you’d better keep trying to make it work as long as there’s a breath in your body or else…

Imagine running a business.

You’ve put your heart and soul into it.

It’s a reflection of you.

It IS you!

Something went wrong along the way and the business isn’t making money any more.

But you have responsibilities to suppliers, staff, your own family and perhaps investors.

To let it die is a fate worse than death.

And some people follow that flawed premise all the way to the edge of the bridge.

A Confusing Time

I posted this video on YouTube about a year ago.

I did so because I had something to say on this topic and it seems it resonated with some people who were in a tough place.

I had seen a video a couple of days before, you know the ones — hyper motivational.

A well-meaning YouTuber had taken snippets of famous people speaking about success and failure and subsequently taken their comments completely out of context.

The video promoted the idea that you should never give up.

It’s such a flawed idea when taken in isolation and without context.

And that’s what I wanted to talk about today.

I’m gonna add more to this article later. For now, you can listen to the entire episode here

This article was originally published on Larry G. Maguire and edited for publication on Medium. Thanks for reading. Join the weekly Sunday Letters readers here. If you like what I write perhaps you’ll like The Daily Larb podcast too.