bbc.com - Winston Churchill and his famous V sign
One of my favorite movies, Galaxy Quest, is about a troupe of has-been actors from a defunct science fiction TV series who are taken on a real adventure by aliens who think their show's broadcasts were video records of their ship's log. The crew's motto in the TV series, "Never give up! Never Surrender!" becomes the theme of the movie, as they face crisis after crisis and encourage each other to overcome their fears and ego and work together as a team to defeat various aggressive aliens and monsters.
Whenever I'm faced with a problem or fail at something, I think of this movie and say to myself, "Never give up! Never Surrender!" And I think of the great men and women of history who lived this motto, people such as Winston Churchill, who failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up.”
Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded.
Jack London received six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story.
Gertrude Stein submitted poems to editors for nearly 20 years before one was finally accepted.
Michael Jordan and Bob Cousy were each cut from their high school basketball teams. Jordan once observed, “I’ve failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.”
Babe Ruth is famous for his past home run record, but for decades he also held the record for strikeouts. He hit 714 home runs and struck out 1,330 times in his career (about which he said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”).
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.
An expert said of Vince Lombardi: “He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation.” Lombardi would later write, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.”
On this note, Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov once said, "It’s so touching to see the efforts young children make when they’re learning to walk! They stagger, fall over, pick themselves up, fall over once more, but they always get up again… Whereas, when elderly people fall over, they have to wait to be helped to their feet, and when they’ve been helped up, they may have to be taken to hospital. What lesson can we draw from these two examples? Children and elderly people are symbolic of the two attitudes people can adopt in the way they lead their life. So many people who have decided to work on improving themselves give up the first time they fail, saying, ‘That’s it, I won’t try a second time.’ Well, they have the character, soul, thoughts and feelings of an old person; they will not enter the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is for children. Jesus said so: ‘Unless you… become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ It’s worth making the effort thousands of times if necessary and, however much you fall, it’s worth picking yourself up again to carry on walking."
So whether your goal is publishing a book, inventing a better light bulb, or ascending to the etheric realms, never give up, never surrender.
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