Those who bail, fail. Those who stay in, win
Margaret Hamilton, the late actress whose perhaps most famous role was as The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” was later featured in Maxwell House coffee commercials as “Cora,” a shopkeeper. In those commercials, after someone told her they thought something she had was “old,” she would respond, “Old? When something works you stick with it.”
Many of us look for, and ultimately find, whatever it is in life that “works” for us. And, usually, we stick with it. Others keep searching, because nothing seems to be “working” for them. Sometimes, we get so good at something that works for us, we fall in love with it – be it a job, a person, our tradition of worship etc. Other times, something that “works” to pay the bills lets us pursue what we love.
The trouble comes when people find something that “works” and are either talked out of it by someone, or themselves. There are others who are always looking, and when they find what “works”, have one of those ah-ha moments. They’d found what they’d been looking for, or even praying for. They knew they were looking for something, but didn’t know what it was until they’d found it.
If you have found what you’ve been looking for, don’t let others, or even you, tell YOU that it can’t or won’t work. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before getting the light bulb to work. He just chalked it up to thousands of steps before reaching what “worked”. That’s a person who knew what “would work,” even though it hadn’t yet. And, he didn’t let anyone tell him otherwise.
PLEASING THE ‘LOOKERS’
The “lookers” can be a tough bunch to please. They will find a lot of what won’t work for them before they ever find what will. Ever work for one of those? They can tell you what they DON’T like, but can’t tell you what they DO like. They won’t know it until they see it. Knowing what you don’t like is fine, but not knowing what you do like can be frustrating for those trying to please you. Once you find what works, staying with it is as hard as it can be rewarding. You’ll hit rough patches. You’ll have people close to you tell you you’re a fool for doing it. You’ll have forces wanting to pull you away. But as long as you know it works, or will work, for you, don’t give up. You won’t fail at it unless you quit.
Of course, not everything “works.” Staying with something that doesn’t work IS foolish. But if your heart tells you it will work, stick with it, as “Cora” would say. Don’t let the naysayers tell you otherwise. The greatest “I told you so” is ultimate success. That’s the power of staying.
Peter
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