Dr. JJ's Rule #8: The Only Real Failure is to Quit

Nature is always PATIENT.
Self-action leaders can learn much from observing its many processes.

In a previous article, Dr. JJ's 13 Rules for Living were shared.

Click HERE to access JJ's 13 Rules.

This week's blog post addresses Dr. JJ's RULE #8, which states:

In the end, the only real failure is to quit. Learn therefore to Labor and to Wait.* And remember that it is in your preparation, performance, and patience that I ultimately possess my soul (see Luke 21:19).

In my opinion—and many people agree with me—Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever dribble or dunk.

Guess what Michael Jordan once attributed his success to? 

FAILURE!

It's true. In his own words: "I have missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six (26) times I was trusted to take the game-winning shot—and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life; and THAT is why I succeed."

From one Jordan to another, I can relate with Michael. 

Like MJ, JJ is no stranger to failure.

For example, in the arena of dating and romance, I went on over 300 dates with 101 different women and was rejected 130 times by 80 different gals before finally finding true love and a lasting relationship forged in marriage. As painful and embarrassing as those rejections were, winning the heart of Lina—a woman better than the woman of my dreams—made it all worth it.

Click HERE to read more about Dr. JJ's Rocky Road of Romance.  

In the arena of mental health, I struggled mightily with obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression for decades before finally getting my mental illness firmly under control. 

Click HERE to read more about Dr. JJ's Struggles with Mental Health.  

In the arena of my career, I have been rejected and ignored so much that to this day, I still have not fully launched my career as an entrepreneur.

Click HERE to read more about Dr. JJ's Career Crucibles.

It takes time for riches of any kind to compound.
Those who are successful in the long-run are so because
they were PATIENT and never gave up. 

But anyone who thinks that is going to stop me from enduring to the end to become consummately successful in due time doesn't know me very well.

In the early years of World War II, things looked bleak for the British Empire as they stood alone to stare down the greatest military power in human history (up to that time).

Fortunately, Great Britain had a leader who embraced the concept contained in JJ's Rule #8.

Winston Churchill—that indefatigable leader of the Allies—refused to cower before Hitler and his evil regime of tyranny, treachery, and genocide. Despite much of Western Europe falling into the hands of the Wermacht and Gestapo (including the countries of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Denmark, and Norway), the British Empire fought on courageously long before the entrance of the United States into the war on their side.

Great Britain's efforts were successful in large part because of Churchill's strong and visionary leadership. We know this is true is because previous leaders to Churchill had taken a markedly different approach to the "Hitler Problem"; approaches that ultimately failed to prevent the Nazi war machine from further expanding its borders through illicit invasions by force.

Listen to some of Churchill's stirring words uttered over the radio waves during this time of great trouble and danger...

Self-action leaders never give up 

"Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict."  (1)

"What is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be."  (2)

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!"  (3)

"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" (4)    

"You do your worst—and we will do our best."  (5)

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."  (6). 

Self-Action Leaders never give up
on a cause worth pursuing

Such words will forever ring and resound in the minds, hearts, and souls of self-action leaders. From the tops of the mountains down into the depths of the valleys, and from the vastness of the plains to the endless expanse of the seas, self-action leaders will forever assert and proclaim the inherent goodness and value of persistent PATIENCE and patient PERSISTENCE as they never give up on worthy causes worth pursuing.

No one gets out of life without failing. And it may surprise many to know that those who succeed the most are often the same persons who once failed the most.

Why is that?  

Because those who fail the most are usually those who TRY the most—and the hardest—to succeed.  Just like Michael Jordan. So remember... the only real failure is to give up on a worthy cause worth pursuing. 

Whenever you find yourself in the midst of an important goal worth completing, Dr. JJ and Freedom Focused encourage you to see the thing through—to endure to the end.

As someone who is no stranger to failure, I promise you that in reality, it is impossible to fail—as long as you don't quit. And along the way, don't forget to glean all the education and wisdom you possibly can from your experiences with temporary failure. You will be forever better for it. I know this is true because just like MJ, I have failed over and over and over again in my life.  

And that... is why... I SUCCEED.

          

NOTE: This article is the 10th in a series of 22 articles on the subject of LIFE RULES.

Click HERE to access quick links to the other 21 articles.   

-Dr. JJ

December 1, 2021

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 241st Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013. 

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 240 FF Blog Articles.  

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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

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Notes:

*  From Longfellow's poem, A Psalm of Life

1). Line from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem: A Psalm of Life.

2). From a BBC radio broadcast on May 19, 1940. 

3). From a speech delivered to the House of Commons.

4). From a speech delivered to the House of Commons on June 18, 1940.

5). Speech delivered July 14, 1940—four days after the Battle of Britain had begun. 

6). Speech delivered at the Harrow School for boys on October 29, 1941—two days before the conclusion of the Battle of Britain.