Over the past few months I have noticed an increasing number of people giving out advice through the use of "one line quotes" and an array of cleverly crafted memes of varying types and quality. The words within those sound good quotes and stamped on those memes are really just an half truths at best. And in most cases but not all, it is very bad advice to follow, even harmful.

I am of course speaking of the now famous quote: "Never Quit", or to paraphrase, Fight The Good Fight, Get Back On The Horse and so on. This also includes more radical quotes such as What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger etc.

All of these quotes have a centralized antagonist in its most basic form called Adversity. Or struggle. So in effect all of those quotes but especially "Never Quit" are advising you to keep struggling. Keep fighting, keep making it difficult for yourself and so on. It is plain to see that that is really bad advice.

Why struggle?, why make things hard on yourself? The proponents of those quotes use non-sequitur's to usurp you of your decision making power. I say that because whilst they advocate "Don't Quit", they also teach that the really successful people also struggled but on the other hand they say that really successful people do what they love to do. Where is the struggle in doing something that you love to do? In fact, there is none. which is why "Never Quit" seems fitting.

When a successful person looks back at the journey he has undertaken to get where he is today he recognizes that what at the time seemed like struggle was really just a series of stepping stones that lead eventually to success. Each struggle was a stepping stone to what came next which was usually a desired result on the way to his ultimate goal.

From what we have discovered from the past few paragraphs it seems that "Never Quitting" is still in-fact a desirable quality but that is not always the case and special attention should be given to situations in which one finds oneself before making and sticking to that assertion of "Never Quitting", getting back on the horse and so on.

Quitting can be good and indeed the best thing to do in certain circumstances.

I make the previous assertion based on both theory from a couple of good sources as well as personal experience. In the example to follow I will use myself as a metaphor to better put across the main point I am trying make.

But first..

Sticking When You Should Quit - Taking It Literally!

Making the assertion to never quit is a very general statement that may or may not apply to you personally. But on accepting that statement and indeed living by it can be extremely bad for you in a number of ways. Lets say for example that I smoked 60 cigarettes a day... Should I quit? Of course I should. If I was a compulsive gambler... should I quit? Of course I should. What if I was an alcoholic... Should I Quit? Of course I should.

Of course the above examples are extreme and not really related to the reason those who make the assertion of Never Quitting a good credo to live by, which is when you are on a journey towards success.

The point is that some things are bad or even dangerous for you and so you should quit and get out as soon as possible and before it's to late.

That being said, I come to statement made by Jay Niblick in his book "What's You Genius". That is, all successful people are authentic. They are true to their natural born talents. This is key, as a musician I practiced and practiced and practiced but couldn't get beyond certain point. My practice would then lead me backwards to better improve what I already knew. And that was no easy task. After 35 years I was playing nothing more technical than I was when I was 15 years younger or 20 years younger. This was because the field I chose was not one of my natural talents. It was a struggle all the way along the journey and although I had some great times meeting some fantastic people and traveled to some exotic locations, it was always a struggle.

But I was following the advice I head been given as a child by parents, peers, friends and associates... Never Give In!

What bad advice that turned out to be. After my long struggle I really had little to show but I was always successful. Successful at struggling, successful at not quitting, successful at not giving up. Sure I was working with lots of famous TV personalities but the struggle was so great that the joy never quite hit me. I was always going somewhere, never arriving, always struggling and recovering and never truly experiencing the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute but the reward wasn't in proportion to the effort put forward. Simply because the actions were not of my own volition, not planned out. which on reflection was the main reason for the struggle.

I discovered that my natural talents did not apply to drumming. It was a talent I developed but not one of my natural inborn talents. My actions were not congruent with who I was, or who I was being wan't congruent with who I really was. In short, I was not being authentic. Natural.

That is the first point, If you are not being authentic and taking advantage of your most natural inborn talents you should do some serious thinking about what you are doing with your life and maybe even consider quitting and starting something more in line with who you are and what your natural talents are. I highly recommend Jays book, it is very informative and goes in depth into showing you how to find your natural talents.

For me personally, I should have quit a long time before I did. I should have pursued something more authentic to who I am and my natural talents. But I was stubborn to the phrase "I Will Never Quit!"

When The Going Gets Tough

If however you have found your natural talents and are pursuing something that is congruent to who you are and or what you are being then you should indeed consider never quitting. However, there is still cause for concern here and I will quote from another great book to make the point. Seth Godin in his little but great book Th Dip states that if you cannot be the best in the world in your field you should consider quitting.

Of course this requires some serious thought, reflection, contemplation and eventually planning. he makes that statement based on a single fact, which is: "The Difference Between The Highest Paid And The Second Highest Paid In Any Field Is Always MASSIVE".

Although most of the top spots can be well reqarded for their efforts it is only ever the very best who gets paid the mostest. This is true of sport, entertainment and every other field of endeavor.

He also states that if you cannot be the very best in the world you should also consider diversifying in some unique way in order to make yourself unique so that you can become the very best in the world in your field.

So to sum up... Once you have discovered your natural inborn talents and are not trying to develop a talent that makes you inauthentic to who you are and the natural talents you possess and, once you have discovered a unique way of becoming the very best in the world at what you do the, and only then should you never quit. The struggle won't exist because you will be acting authentically towards a goal that you can reach and become the very best at. every seemingly failure will just be a stepping stone towards the next success on your journey.

And remember, what seems like a struggle is not a struggle. It is a stepping stone that leads to the next big horizon that will lead to another stepping stone that will eventually lead to your ultimate horizon.