These daily excerpts from Randy Kay's book Daily Keys to Success will show you how to grow your potential while expanding your personal success to lead a life of significance. You will benefit from 365 topics with ideas, tools, and tactics for living life fully.
If you quit on your dream, how will you ever know if you’d have succeeded?Maybe just a little more time or effort is all it would take for the dream tocome true. It could happen tomorrow, or ten years from now. No one really knows. What separates many successful people from those who failed is simply that they never quit. Quitting was removed from their list of options, erased from their vocabulary—even if it meant the realization of their dreams would only benefit the next generation, or even later. When they reached their dream, they created a new one, a new reason for going forward.
Consider Galileo Galilei, the Italian physicist who invented the telescope, allowing both himself and others to discover the galaxies. Galileo was largely criticized, and even accused of heresy by Pope Urban VIII, who placed him on house arrest until his death. The famous painter Vincent Van Gogh’s 2,000 pieces of art were never discovered until after his death—and today they are worth millions (his Portrait of Dr. Gachet, alone, was valued recently at $134 million). Many of these unheralded achievers followed their dreams knowing full well that their dedication might never be recognized. But they never quit. They were willing to leave a legacy for others.
We don’t know when our breakthrough will happen. So don’t guarantee failure by quitting now. You can develop, adapt, and change, but don’t stop. Be content with a legacy for those who may follow after you. Create an inheritance built upon the foundation of your efforts. Just like a farmer who plants a crop knowing he’ll never taste its fruit, a legacy is a gift you leave behind without any expectation of a return. The values and life lessons you impart to those around you can benefit countless others. Just make sure your legacy is a labor of love, not a chore. It’s all about giving back, as psychologist Erik Erikson so poignantly said, “I am what survives of me.” Success should not only be motivated by the desire to accomplish something through a “never quit attitude,” but also by the desire to share it with others.
“The legacy we leave is part of the ongoing foundations of life.” ~ Jim Rohn