Is quitting a healthy response to struggle or repeated failure? Is it OK just to toss in the towel and move on?
Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock once wrote: “There is an old motto that runs, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.’ This is nonsense. It ought to read—‘If at first you don’t succeed, quit, quit at once.’” Leacock then adds, “Try something else while there is yet time.”
Leacock’s turning this adage on its head is easily refuted. Inventor Thomas Edison failed a thousand times or more to develop the light bulb, but finally succeeded. When Michael Jordan first tried out for his high school varsity basketball team, the hoops great didn’t make the cut. Some marriages are saved when couples dig in their heels, refuse to call it quits, and work out their problems. They try and try again until they make that marriage a success….