What to Do When You Want to Give Up | Jack Canfield

Hi, I'm Jack Canfield and today I want to talk to you about some things to consider if you're thinking about quitting or giving up. If you're like most people, I'm sure you sometimes find yourself feeling like giving up on pursuing your dream. Whether it's giving up on finding a publisher for your book or selling enough books to make the best seller list, building up your online database, getting enough clients to make your coaching business viable, getting enough funds to launch your own business, learning losing weight you want to lose, or getting enough people into your downline in your network marketing business to be able to quit your day job, or getting your first paid acting job after a hundred unsuccessful auditions. See, achieving your dreams can sometimes feel like a daunting task and like it's never going to work out. But the truth is that there are a lot of obstacles to be overcome and rejections to be endured and failures to be experienced before you ever achieve the success you so desperately want. So today I'd like to share some true stories with you to consider before you give up. My intention in sharing these is that they will inspire you not to give up at all, but to persevere in the face of the natural process of achieving any worthwhile success. So consider this. Steven Spielberg, who you all know is an amazing director, was rejected three times when he applied to the USC School of Theater, Film and Television. He ended up going to Cal State Long beach after directing and producing such blockbuster hits as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET Jurassic park, the Color Purple, Saving Private Ryan, and Lincoln. He now sits on the board of directors of the USC Film School and donates a million dollars a year to the school. Now another person who was rejected by the school of his choice was the famous World War II General Douglas MacArthur MacArthur, who might never have gained power and fame without being persistent. When he applied for admission to West Point, he was turned down not once but twice. But he tried one more time. He was accepted and he marched into the history books. Dr. Seuss, we all read his books growing up. His first children's book, which was called and To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry street, was rejected by 27 publishers. The 28th publisher, Vanguard Press, sold 6 million copies of that book and all of his children's books went on to sell a total of more than 100 million copies. A man named Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel called Mash, only to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway Bestseller and then spawned a blockbuster movie and a highly successful television series. When Peter J. Daniels was in the fourth grade, his teacher Mrs. Phillips constantly said, Peter J. Daniel, you're no good, you're a bad apple and you're never going to amount to anything. Now Peter was totally illiterate until he was 26. One night a friend stayed up with him all night and read him a copy of the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Now he owns the street corners he used to fight on and has written and published 10 books, including Mrs. Phillips, you were wrong. Think about basketball superstar Michael Jordan. He was cut from his high school basketball team. He went on to say once I have missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games and on 26 occasions I've been entrusted to take the game winning shot and I have missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. Here's another story. Probably didn't know this. Fifteen publishers and 30 literary agents turned down John Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill. Now more than 60 million copies of his books are in print. I bet you didn't know that the movie Star wars was rejected by every movie studio in Hollywood before 20th Century Fox finally produced it. Now it went on to be one of the largest grossing movies in film history and created a series of 10 films that have won a total of seven Academy Awards and $9.2 billion in revenue. Academy Award winning writer, producer and director Woody Allen film flunked motion picture production at New York University and the City College of New York. He also failed English at New York University. And yet he went on to write and direct 54 films for which he won four Academy Awards. In 1992, actor, playwright and filmmaker Tyler Perry wrote, produced and starred in his first theater production called I Know I have Been Changed, which was somewhat informed by his difficult upbringing. The Now Perry put all of his savings into the show and it failed miserably. The run lasted just one week and only 30 people came to watch during that whole week. Now he kept up with the production, worked odd jobs and often slept in his car to get by. And six years later, Perry finally broke through when on the seventh run of this play, the show finally became a success. Now he's since gone on to have an extremely successful career as a director, a writer and an actor. And in 2011, Perry was named Ford's highest paid man in Entertainment, having earned $130 million that year. He now has an estimated net worth of $800 million. Now consider this. When Howard Schultz was raising money to start Starbucks, he was turned down 217 times. Now, if he'd given up after the 200 rejections, there'd be no Starbucks today. Think about this. Robert Frost, one of the greatest poets that America has ever produced, labored for 20 years without any fame or any success. He was 39 years old before he sold a single volume of poetry. Now today, his poems have been published in 22 languages and he's won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times. Here's another story. Consider this. Louis L', Amour, the successful author of more than 100 Western novels with more than 200 million copies in print, received three hundred and fifty rejections before he made his first sale. He later became the first American novelist to receive a special Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his distinguished career as an author and contributor to the nation through his historically based books. Consider this. Former U.S. senator and former NBA hall of Famer, New York Knicks basketball star Bill Bradley practiced relentlessly. He had five spots on the basketball court from which he would shoot 25 times. If he didn't hit 22 baskets out of 25 shots, he'd start over. Now here's a guy with a strange name, but you know you'll know the brand. It's a guy named King Camp Gillette. And he dreamed of a cockeyed invention that caused investors, metal engineers and experts at MIT to snicker. They all believed that there was no way a razor could be made sharp enough to provide a clean shave and yet be cheap enough that it could be thrown away when it was done. Doll. Now Gillette labored four years to produce the first disposable razor and another six years to get it placed on store shelves. Now, although only 51 blades were sold during that first year, the second year 90,844 were purchased. And Gillette's risk taking intervention was on its way to revolutionizing the shaving industry. Consider this. When NFL running back Herschel Walker was in junior high school, he wanted to play football, but the coach told him he was too small. He advised young Herschel to go out for track instead. But undaunted by the lack of encouragement and support he got, he ignored the coach's advice and began an intensive training program to build himself up. Only a few years later, Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy. Consider this. Young Dr. Ignatius Piazza, fresh out of chiropractic school, wanted to open a practice in a beautiful marathon Monterey Bay area of California. He was told by the local chiropractic community that the area was already overrun with chiropractors and there was not enough potential patients to support another practice. But for the next four months, Piazza spent 10 hours a day going door to door to door and introducing himself as a new chiropractic doctor in town. He eventually knocked on 12,500 doors, spoke to 6,500 people and invited them to come to his future open house. And as a result of his perseverance and his commitment, during his first month in practice, he saw 233 new patients and earned a record income for that time of $72,000 in one month. And he went on to earn over $1 million that first year. Did you know that Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas? Can you imagine? He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disney Studios, Disneyland and later Disney World. Now another person who went broke and bankrupt was Henry Ford, who failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded in creating a successful Ford Motor Company. And think about this. A Universal Pictures executive dismissed both Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds at the same meeting with the following statements. To Burt Reynolds he said, you have no talent. To Clint Eastwood, you have a chip on your tooth, your Adam's apple sticks out too far, and you talk way too slow. Now, as you no doubt know, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood went on to become big stars in the movie industry. Eastwood with 13 Academy Awards and Reynolds with numerous Golden Globe and Emmy Awards. Sometimes what seems like a terrible rejection can be a huge gift. One example of this is the story of Soichiro Honda, who wanted to work for Toyota, but he was rejected. However, he didn't give up his dream of building cars and later he went on to found the vehicle very successful Honda Motor Company. So the next time you think of giving up or quitting, I want you to remember these stories of the people who didn't give up and went on to create great success in their lives. Now I would love to hear your thoughts after watching this video. Are you willing to persevere to achieve your goals no matter what? If so, let me know what you're working on below. Now, please leave a comment below with your answer. I'd love to read what you have to say now. If you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one and for some additional resources on how to persevere in the face of rejection and failure. Make sure to visit my website@jackcampfield.com and make sure to click the link on the screen for your free gift. Thanks again for watching.