Don't Quit

[Mike]

Thought that this is worth sharing. The poem is by Terry Hoeppner who coached a few college football teams before he died of a brain tumor.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow ‐‐
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out ‐‐
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit ‐‐
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

I also think this speech by Jim Valvano a few months before he died of cancer is also worth watching if you've never seen it.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimvalvanoespyaward.htm

I found the last things he said in the speech particularly powerful:

I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I'm gonna say it again: Cancer can take away all my physical ability. It cannot touch my mind; it cannot touch my heart; and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.

 

[Anicsku]

Hello Mike,

Thanks for the poem. I am going through a difficult time in my career right now. I randomly choose your post to read tonight... and it really made me feel better. Life is working strangely, sometimes you just get support from places that you do not expect when you need them most...:)