There is an old saying, “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” I love it. It encourages perseverance and never giving up. These qualities are important to our success. We all want our team to keep pushing to the end. A come back is always possible so we should never quit.
The saying is true, but in my opinion it doesn’t tell the whole story. Winners do quit. In fact, maybe quiting is what they do best. They quit better than anyone else and they do it with great intention.
To be number one at something means quiting a lot of other things that we can’t be number one at in order to give our best. This is hard. Afterwall, winners never quit.
The young athlete who is number one at every sport he plays eventually has to make a tough decision. Early on it is great to play them all, but as the competition increases as he gets older he has to decide what he is going to quit to make room for his best. If he rises to the professional levels he will quit everything, but the one sport.
The world rewards being the best. To be the best at anything involves a lot of quiting. But it also involves a lot of not quiting. Knowing what to quit and what not to quit is the key. Seth Godin wrote an entire book on quiting called The Dip. Perseverance is a quality of the most successful, but so is quiting.
Is there anything you need to quit in order to help you be the best at something else?
Rich Florence 