Yet, the credo "persevere" can easily be used to disguise denial.
Long ago, I tried to launch a product. I had a cool idea and a consultant convinced me that the first thing I needed was a patent.
A business plan was born.
- Patent.
- Figure out how to sell it.
- Get rich.
I clung to that plan. I did the first two parts of it, kind of. I invested miles of paper and months of time in writing a patent. Then I figured out there was no way for me to sell what I had invented.
There were people who told me I shouldn't be wasting my time in that way but I couldn't hear them. All I could hear was "give up".
Sometimes we are faced with pivotal moments and, in those moments, we must do the hard thing for the benefit of ourselves and those around us.
It's just that the hard thing isn't always to keep going.
