Never give up goes the traditional self help mantra. That and all the other self help cliches that never really do anything for us. You learn lessons from life through actual experiences and not quotations from the book. Let me share with you my experience of never giving up and what it has done for me.
As a part of my work as a children’s entertainer it is beneficial for me to know how to make balloon animals. I have been doing magic shows for a few months and finally decided one night to have a go at balloon twisting with a packet of balloons and relevant step-by-step instructional book. I pumped up the first balloon and it popped immediately. I pumped up a second one, twisted it once and it popped again. All this time I was participating with my girlfriend who was having great success and having just produced her first ballon dog. I just had fragments of popped balloons around me. I was quite jealous too as I wanted my own four legged latex friend.
Usually I’d give up on something like this because of my initial setback however I was determined to get the hang of it. It turned out after a bit of research that I had cheap balloons renowned for popping. I invested in quality balloons and having made my first dog one I was ready to embark on making a big monkey with five balloons. This looks pretty awesome from the pictures. It was quite a step up from making a dog and was difficult, probably not for beginners more so intermediates. I had a nightmare making this as it popped so many times it was unbelievable. I would get so many steps in and then one of the balloons popped. I began again got a little bit further than I did before and it popped again! At some points I got as far as almost completing it (this took about 45 minutes) and then the wretched thing popped again! I was absolutely determined to make this monkey. I eventually failed 17 times before I made a complete monkey that didn’t pop. I had bits of monkey balloons all over the floor. It was 1 am when I made the 17th monkey and I was desperate for sleep but simply determined to make that monkey. I probably would’ve stayed up all night to achieve this. Never before have I been do determined to achieve something.
Fast forward two years and now I’m making a living off making balloon animals. I found it immensely difficult to start off with. A lot of things in life people give up straight away. My life would have been quite different now if I hadn’t persevered with this. This is my example of never giving up. You have to experience this determination in the face of adversity and then reap the success to learn this.
