Many times while toiling along the wearisome road to success, our luggage seems to become so heavy and our vision blurred. More often than not we are tempted to throw in the towel and go back to where we started.
Is your load so heavy and you struggle to retain your balance underneath it? Don't give up yet. Have you lost the very courage that got you started out in the first place, don't give up yet. Hold on a little longer. It is always darkest before the dawn. Don't give up yet, there is yet hope for you.
For Sylvester Stallone the American movie star, life wasn't by any chance all rosy and smooth. As a child, he was in and out of foster homes many times and for some reasons couldn't really fit in in school. By the time he became an adult, things hadn't changed much for poverty was his ready companion. Seeing that people made it in Hollywood, he decided to try it out. At one point, things got so rough that he had to sell his dog to pay his electricity bill- it was that bad.
Surprisingly, it turned out that Hollywood wasn't as charming as the promises it held out before he arrived and he could not quite make it at having a steady income, but Stallone didn't give up. One day, it occurred to him that he could write a movie and he attacked the idea with the ferocity of a wounded lion.
In about twenty hours he had written the script and began looking for a deal. When eventually the first five set of people threw his script out the window, he wasn't ready to give up and somehow, that same script was rejected a total of 1500 times before he got a deal—to star in his own movie and get paid $35,000 and a percentage of the proceeds.
That movie he wrote, grossed over $200,000,000 and began an acting career that lifted Stallone far far above the very reach of poverty.
Have you been rejected a thousand times yet? Have you had countless numbers of applications rejected and no feedback whatsoever from the employers? Have you been to that point where you'll have to sell things to buy grocery? Then it is not yet time to throw in the towel. Do you have just a pair or trouser and shirt on you back and you are beginning to consider throwing in the towel? Don't give up, there is yet hope for you. If Stallone could rise from the very hold of poverty to become a millionaire, I believe you can do more. I believe he is not smarter or more hardworking than you.
About two decades ago, Kunle Soriyan was filled with excitement as he got ready to sit for his degree exams. But there was a huge problem; he was a deadly cult boy and the university had found out. Soon enough, just before his final exams, news got to him: he had been expelled from The University of Lagos.
He gladly went his way, and didn't break a sweat. A drug addict and scoundrel, Kunle wandered around with his gun. He eventually met a man who preached Christ to him; he got born again, denounced cultism and parted ways with his gun and corrupt life.
He applied for admission with the same university he was expelled and got an offer. He became a pastor and worked hard to maintain a good GPA but could not graduate at the set time; somehow, the university administration still doubted he was a changed man.
Kunle applied for an admission a third time, despite having already spent eight years trying to earn a four-year degree. He endured the shame and disdain; being the oldest man in the midst of much younger, high-spirited students who often ridiculed him. And after another four years (making a total of twelve years), Kunle finally graduated.
It's a wonder what would have happened to Kunle had he not turned back to understand the value of life and pay the price to be educated because today; he is a multi-millionaire, action coach and one of the foremost motivational speakers and mentors Nigeria has seen in recent times. There were other people his mates who today are still cab drivers who are still struggling in poverty after giving up on their goals and aspirations.
Do you have a noble goal and dream? Don't give up yet. The road may not be smooth and circumstances may not seem to be working in your favor. Hang on a little more. Don't give up yet. There is yet hope for you. If anybody must give up, then it mustn't be you.