Once I was working on a difficult case with the great lawyer, J. Mack Swigart. Feeling the need for a mattress to fall on in the event we lost, I started listing the good reasons we might not win. He changed me from negative to positive by saying, "Fred, it's better to win. You don't have to explain a win, and you can't explain a loss." Being a very savvy man, he added smiling, "And they pay bigger, quicker fees for wins." We won.
Don't spend time giving up or thinking of reasons you should give up. Let defeat come as a sudden surprise unless it comes as an alternative to another way of going. Have you ever wondered why the follow-through in golf is so important — the "high finish" every pro promotes? It comes after the ball is hit. Then why worry about the follow-through? Simple. Follow-through shows you accelerated through the ball. Most golfers stop or at least decelerate the club before it hits the ball. When you finish high, you know you went through the ball as you should. The follow-through is evidence of not quitting. Just so, it is important to develop winning habits that won't quit at the crucial time, not even subconsciously.
I once held a seminar for young men who had lost heavily in a serious downturn of the economy. It was their first time to lose. Many were confused and shaky. We called the seminar "For Losers, Not Quitters." Losing is a temporary fact. Quitting is an attitude. Wasn't it Mike Todd who said he had been broke many times, but never poor? Broke was financial; poor was spiritual. Broke is in the pocket; poor is in the mind.
If I have earned any reputation for creatively solving problems, it is because I assume there is an answer. Thinking that there is non answer is almost the certain defeat of creativity. It dries out the mental juices. Keeping on keeping on is a mighty good habit to form. My family used to give me a hard time because I was never satisfied to go buy a solution, but was intrigued to find a unique way to use what I had around. This resulted in many unusual and "temporary" fixes that I thoroughly enjoyed ---- and thoroughly embarrassed my family. But it was just so much fun to see how I could look at an object and find it in a solution for a problem. Creativity is a muscle — it needs exercise to be strong.
Being raised by an iron-willed Mother whose mantra was "when nothing but the will says go" certainly molded my view of quitting. I may have lost at times, but her voice rings still and reminds me that quitting isn't an option. Keep on!
