QUIT NOW? THEN WHAT

Quit now and forever hold your peace?

Who do you say that to?

And who would listen?

Quitting is the easy part, it’s what comes next that’s hard to figure out.

Imagine you’re 20 or 21 and you made the goose that laid golden eggs.

Would you have the patience to wait for each egg, or do this:

One day, while the farmer and his wife were talking, his wife said: “If we could get all the eggs that are inside the goose we could be richer faster”.

“You are right,” said the farmer, ” we wouldn’t have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day.”

So, the couple decided to cut open the goose and get the gold mine inside the goose all at once.

Given the wealth gathered by Gates and Jobs they had enough patience for things to develop.

Anyone who told them to quit now, to quit working on their big projects, probably didn’t jump on the software bandwagon.

One of the problems with quitting early?

Missing out on the eventual accomplishments.

Then What?

Dreamers, wanderers, and romantics know what’s next after they quit.

They either die, or the part they liked dies inside them.

It’s replaced by regret, remorse, and resentment.

They regret quitting before the loot rolled in for others.

Remorse surfaces when they are refused a second chance.

After that it’s all about resentment.

At least that’s the human response.

Some people wonder if the grinders who gave the world a usable computer interface ever have those feelings.

Sure they do. Then they remember the popular command prompts that had to be typed in before the advent of function keys, the F-Keys.

Function keys?

Who logged into their first networked computer and worried about blowing up the system by tapping the wrong F-Key?

The computer mouse helped that anxiety.

Give Up, Quit Now? But Why

This is one of the best team pictures I’ve stood for.

I’ve been in more than a few, but this one stands out.

This is the team working at a chemo infusion clinic I visited before and after the cure.

Was it a hard cure? Ask around.

It’s harder for some than it is for others.

The thread includes guys posting pics of themselves after treatment, gruesomely right after, and the weight loss from treatment. I can relate. One tweet:

This is just a part of what treatment looks like. Neck dissection, extreme tonsillectomy, remove parts of tongue, remove soft palette. Not to mention the radiation and chemo/immuno that follows. Very painful. And I’m a lucky one. Get your kids vaccinated before they are exposed.

When I rang the bell on the last day they called me over to the desk and started singing quietly.

‘Hit The Road Jack.’

I sang along. We all had a laugh.

“We stopped singing when patients started coming back.”

When I went back they didn’t recognize me. At first.

I was healthy.

“Quit Now” Is A Poor Message To Send. Here’s Why:

I took this shot coming out of the gym after nearly dropping two seventy pound dumbbells on my face.

I wanted them, they wanted me more, neither of us got what we wanted.

But I pushed the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s to the limit so I called it a win.

Just giving the 70’s a try was a big win. Not dropping dropping them on my head an even bigger win.

I was in there giving my turkey-neck a workout and that part went well.

When you face adversity and turn away it becomes something else to live with.

If you quit now, or quit then, you will always wonder what more you could have done.

Wonder comes from knowing you could have gone on instead of quitting.

Instead of quitting life and wondering what the fuck happened to you, brighten the hell up instead of going black hole.

Someone could use a little of the light you could generate if you weren’t so self-centered.

You may not know them now, but they always show up. They’re are dimmed down because of their own problems and not knowing how to deal.

“But Dave, I don’t know how to deal either. What am I supposed to do?”

You’re supposed to try and help. Don’t throw in the towel just yet.

Start with being a good listener.

If you don’t get any further than being a good listener you’re still done this:

You verified to another human being that they are worth someone’s time.

I strive to make that the biggest takeaway for readers of boomerpdx.

How’m I doing so far?