Patience, not giving up can take you to great lengths… By Promise Twinamukye

When Winston Churchill began boarding at St George’s School in Ascot, Berkshire, at age seven, he was not academic and his behavior was poor. He later transferred to Brunswick School in Hove, where his academic performance improved. At the age of 13, he narrowly passed the entrance exam for Harrow School. His father wanted him to prepare for a military career and so his last three years at Harrow were in the army form. After two unsuccessful attempts to gain admittance to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he succeeded on his third. He was accepted as a cadet in the cavalry, starting in September 1893 and later graduated in 1895.
This story of his early life brought him to many successes in his life. He went great lengths; from India, to South Africa, to being a politician, a path he later realized he wanted to pursue.
He brings forth one lesson – not giving up. Had he given up on education due to poor grades, or even military school after his two unsuccessful attempts, maybe he would not have made the milestones he did, and a mark in history to begin with.
Life can be hard, ringing true in today’s world, where even with good grades, it may be hard to get employment, or land that grant. Giving up will only leave you with what could have been, the possibility you did not get a chance to explore.
But what can be done in times when you are in despair, and on the verge of giving up?
Be optimistic in every situation
Even in losses, try as hard as you can to be optimistic because an optimistic mind sees opportunity in everything – even in failure.
In one of his famous quotes, Churchill says “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity and an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
This attitude can show you possibilities you never thought possible. Optimism strengthen us to try again than give up. It shows you what went wrong in a failure giving you energy to do better in your next attempt.
Optimism allows one to keep one’s goals and dreams in play so they can act on the motivation to keep working toward them.
Because of this, optimistic people feel more in control of their situations and have higher self-esteem
Failure leads to success
Yes, there will be people who shoot once and get the bird. This does not mean if you do not, you are not good enough. You just have not mastered the art of shooting that well and that is okay. You try again and learn the skill and voila! You will be one of the best shooters the world has ever known – or at least the best you have ever been.
Remember, success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. If Churchill lost his enthusiasm, he would not have reached the lengths he got to.
There many other success stories that stemmed from failure, humiliation and rejection including;
Walt Disney, who was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas”. He later built an empire with as many imaginative stories as possible.
J.K.Rowling, who, through hard work and determination and a great book idea, went from depending on welfare and 12 book rejections to being one of the world’s most beloved authors.
Oprah Winfrey, who was publicly fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore for getting “too emotionally invested in her stories”. She how has one of the most popular shows and has hosted some of the most influential people in the world.
These are more like the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Henry Ford, Michael Jordan, among others, all with great stories that shows how resilience and not giving up can be rewarding.
Bottomline
Not giving up is one of the best reward you can give yourself. Life may, with no doubt, knock you down, but with a dash of patience a sprinkle of resilience, you are on you are your way to greatness.
And this is not even about age. No matter how old you get, you can still make a difference in your life.
Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of KFC, in this case, was 65 years old when he set out with nothing more than a $105 social security check in his pocket and a recipe for his now-famous fried chicken.