Do Not Give Up!

"The difference in winning and losing is most often ...  not quitting."  ~Walt Disney

~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.

~ As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private.  Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman.  As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success.  He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858.  At about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "I am now the most miserable man living.  If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth."

~Winston Churchill 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." 

~Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7.  His parents thought he was "sub-normal," and one of his teachers descirbed him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams."  He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.  He did eventually learn to speak and read.  Even to do a little math.

~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."

~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."

For more inspiration on not giving up:  http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/efficacynotgiveup.html