Be a Quitter. Be the Change. Take Charge of Life

A schoolteacher’s son from rural Gujarat had a dream: to make it big in life. He quit taking “no” for an answer. He ruffled a few wedges initially in life for his inability to hear “no”. Dhirubhai Ambani left his hometown and his humble beginnings to make it big in Yemen, and from here returned to take a chance that eventually bore him millions. The rest, as they stay, is stuff history books are made of. Reliance commercial company, started in 1942, changed the face of Indian Business. It is evident how quitting hearing “no” took one man’s dream from rural India to a Fortune 500 company. He went on to be a quitter and initiated the change, before taking charge of his life and becoming an utter success.

Quite early in his career Bill Gates realised that when you intend to create a giant like Microsoft, school transcripts wouldn’t really count. He left school to sell software. All of 19, Bill was an aspiring Math student at the prestigious Harvard University in Boston when he dropped out even before graduating. But not before meeting his two future business partners, Steve Balmer and Paul Allen. Bill wanted to someday make computers affordable for the average person. And so he did. Bill quit conformity to create a trend we all find our everyday lives dependent on – Microsoft Windows.

He stepped into the Hindi film industry as a child actor at a tender age of eight, and eleven years later won the National Award as a debutant for his first commercial film. After that, he had to face a string of failures in his career. A few films and lessons later, he quit mediocrity and became known as Aamir Khan, the actor India is most proud of today. He started his journey towards being a perfectionist – taking one film at a time, giving it all he got, the best of efforts and the time it required, often involving himself beyond the set boundary of an actor. He wasn’t required to do that considering the cushioned Film Industry background he hailed from, but he stood in the same Industry as someone who epitomised finesse. Today, Aamir Khan doesn’t attend any award function/ceremony and considers his audience the final critic.

When a student from California State University left school in 1968 and made a short film “Amblin”, the cash registers started ringing for the award-winning director, Steven Spielberg. The director of the top-grosser “Jurassic Park” and the much acclaimed “The Colour Purple” is a college drop out. He turned his back on a degree to pursue his dream and holds an Academy Award in his hand instead. He did not complete his classes and neither did comply with the tradition, but instead worked on to create life-size dinosaurs.

If You Don’t Like the Normal, Just Quit It! “You have to quit doing things that stop you from doing the things you are born to do.”

Quit Giving Up.

The only thing that stands between you and your dreams is you. Dreams go unrealised because people simply give up when faced with setbacks. Circumstances can be challenging, but there is a long list of people who have found success despite all odds. You know why? It is because they broke the mould, they stayed out of their comfort zone, remained committed to their aim of achieving success. They quit giving up and kept trying.

Five people who did not give up.

1. Bill Gates: A Harvard’s drop-out, his Traf-O-Data (first business) with Microsoft Co-Founder, Paul Allen, failed. Today, Microsoft is one the biggest companies in the world, making him one of the richest entrepreneurs.

2. Oprah Winfrey: We’ve all heard stories of the ordeals that have made her into what she is today. From being fired as a TV reporter citing “unfit for TV” as the reason, to having faced a course childhood, she has seen it all. And yet, everyone knows of her contribution to the TV space and the never-say-die attitude. She’s not only one of the world’s richest women, but one of the most influential faces of all times in the history of television.

3. J.K. Rowling: She did not go through life broke, but she was nearly there. Raising her child on her own after divorce, she attended school while writing the Harry Potter novels. Five years later, everyone involved, from publishers to the director of films based out of her novels, became internationally famous.

4. Vincent Van Gogh: By acclamation, he is one of the greatest artists of all time. He, during his lifetime, sold only one painting to his friend for a measly amount. The paintings that get sold for a record selling-price today made him starve while he drew them, displaying a level of absolute dedication and loyalty to his work.

5. Charlie Chaplin: When the big Hollywood studios rejected Charlie Chaplin thinking he was too non-serious to be sold, would they have known that he was to become the face of comedy in films.

Never give up and surrender to the situation, however worse. Always strive to do better, to keep trying until you are excellent at it. Once you take the chosen road ahead, don’t keep looking back. Steer ahead and bee a winner!

Quit Giving Up! Keep Trying!