For many, many years now, my personal motto has been: Never, never, never give up – but quit easily. It may seem strange at first, but the longer I live with it, the more convinced I become of its relevance.

When I want to accomplish something I will not be put off. But I have learned through my own suffering, and observing the unfortunate (and often unnecessary) suffering of others that you’ll do well to learn to hear and heed that little voice in your head that says, “I really don’t want to be doing this.”

Of course, I don’t advocate giving up too easily, just working on finding the line between easily and too easily. You’ll save a lot of time, a lot of suffering and a lot of wasted effort.

I believe in emulating the water of the stream, and not the rock in the stream more often than not. I love to try to do things that are very difficult, and sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t, but I know that as long as I’m alive I can try again – if I want to – and I’ll be wiser the next time around. But maybe that failure is serendipitously leading me to the next great success in my life. I’m always open to shifting my direction, to go around the rock.