When should you give up?

When should you give up?

It depends on the situation, now doesn’t it?

If everything I want is to be President of the United States, I should just give up!  Let’s face it the smartest people in this country would never accept that job even if it was just given to them.

If everything I want is to become the King of England, I should just give up!

If everything I want is to marry some person who is already happily married and has their own family, I should probably give up and find another person.

If I was a small country with an army smaller than the registered hunters in just one state of the United States, but all I want is to conquer the United States of America, I should probably just give up.

If I was a pirate in a single boat with maybe an RPG or two and some machine guns and I run up against a Navy ship belonging to the United States or Great Britain, I probably should just give up and sail back home.

Sometimes when it is a person who is hell bent on killing themselves with drugs, alcohol, some destructive behavior, or worse, sometimes you have to just walk away until they are ready to help themselves.  The lines and issues get fuzzy when it is a situation which involves a loved one, family member, or close friend.  The choices get harder.

How much pain and misery is enough before you have to walk away.  What if their problem cost somebody to lose the life of a stranger, a friend, or a loved one, or a member of your own family.  What if you’re the problem and you don’t want to quit because the drugs and alcohol are all you really want?

There was a battle I read about from World War I where British Troops were in the trenches and had just held against another onslaught by the Germans who were across the field in their trenches.  As they counted up the remaining rounds their troops had up and down the line they had maybe two rounds per man.  They were actually discussing if they should surrender or not because they knew they couldn’t hold off one more attack.  Just then it was reported that the Germans raised a white flag and wanted to surrender to the British Troops.  It was later discovered that the Germans had surrendered their position because they had almost completely run out of ammo themselves.  In light of stories like that – one should never give up!

From a military perspective if you’re ordered to hold, you hold!  I will never forget the plight of the 101^st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge holding on against the Germans to keep them out of Bastogne.  In that kind of a case you don’t give up!

There are virtually millions of possible scenarios with Pro’s and Con’s to both sides.  It truly depends on the situation.  Investigate the details of the situation.  Investigate your chances of succeeding.  Weigh the gains and losses of the situation going either way.

When I was younger I had several people tell me I would make a great writer and I blew it off as fluff.  English was one of the few subjects in the world I couldn’t get my head around or understand the rules of.  It and Calculus were both at the top of the list as far as subjects I wasn’t going to become proficient in.  To be a writer, knowing and understanding English might seem like a pretty large prerequisite.

The ladies of my book club talked me into bringing in Chapters of a book I had started and they would help me edit it.  Soon we were past what I had written and I had to write more to stay ahead of them.  Soon I was writing a little bit every day and I found I really enjoyed writing in spite of how bad the spelling, grammar, and proper following of the rules of English.  So I put that story aside and took my worst story and decided to finish it.  This story was the weakest one of about 20 ideas for books I could write.  Soon, much sooner than I expected, I had finished the rough draft of Whisper.  After three edits it is not half bad and the story is good.  It will forever be my first and worst book.

I still had questions.

What if nobody liked it?

What if my stories suck?

What if I never sell a single book or nobody wants to read it?

I published “Whisper” in January of 2011 after one initial edit from a retired English school teacher.  I was vastly improved but still way below industry or readers standards.  I did publish it early without it being as polished as it could have been but by doing that it taught me a few things.

I got some Great Reviews in spite of the grammar and English issues.  The bad reviews attacked the second rate nature of the Grammar and English, nobody was attacking the story!  It did sell!  People were buying my book and reading it, some leaving reviews that were good and bad.

So I fell in love with writing and I know it is what I want to do with the rest of my life outside of spending time with my family and growing older.  I am still pretty much an unknown, undiscovered writer.  To fix that I just need to write more and better books.

If I never become well known and never make a fortune at writing books that’s okay because I still have my day job.  I may end up retiring from here still being a undiscovered second rate Science Fiction Action Adventure Writer.  That’s alright because I write my books to make me happy, it is what I enjoy doing with my spare time.  If I hit it Big, that would be great!  If I don’t I will have spent my life doing what I enjoy.

So in my case I don’t have to give up.  I am published, e-published, Indie Author, the do it yourself of the publishing industry.  Since January of 2011, I have sold or given away over two thousand copies of my first novel “Whisper”  As of writing this blog post the first half of my second book “No Rules Of Engagement” has been reedited.  I am waiting for the edits on the second half and then I will rerelease it and work at promoting it.  I am not actively promoting as it still is in need of help grammatically.  The sequels to both books are written and at my editors.

Yes it is hard to wait around for something, and even harder to give up when you know it is everything you want.  I would normally say never give up, but as pointed out above it all depends on the circumstances.  What are you waiting for?  What do you want?  Is it possible?  Could it happen?  Can you live and exist while waiting?  Can live without what you want if you were to give up waiting for it to happen?  These are questions we have to answer truthfully of ourselves every day.

Posted in: What do you want give up drugs alcohol President King Bastogne 101st