There’s always a but lurking somewhere and buts holds the answer to all things. The exception confirms the rule. The pattern of “never quit” will, in most cases, lead you to victory by persistence alone and, if you’re just playing a game of chances in this life, not quitting is a good bet, BUT if you truly want to understand and be present in all you do, fully comprehending the reasons why things happen the way they do and how to go on, you’ll have to take things contextually as singular isolated instances and see the blind spots behind “never quitting”.

Never quitting might win you the battle but lose you the war in the long run while quitting intelligently may take away a current possibility of winning but it saves up energy for the final clash. This is the life of finesse. Somewhere on the brink of 30’s you’ll start noticing that one dimensional persistence may not be the best path. The experiences so far have showed you that you need more tactical advantages than just brute force, you need to know there’s a strategic assessment that needs to be made here on how many times hitting your head against the wall is too many times. You’ll need to be humble and take into consideration that you might be wrong or lacking a skill or there might be a different approach, a better way you can get this done. You’ll choose to disengage from something only to be able to regroup and reengage with superior knowledge, skill and insight. Sacrifices we make in order to keep going are not only a pay-once cost. Emotions and energy don’t work that way. They reverberate in other areas of life. So is it worth keeping a difficult relationship if it is so draining that it impacts your work performance, is it worth to stay in a situation that makes you so joyless that you cannot find joy in anything anymore?

Sometimes we quit not because we are quitters but because we’re intelligent enough to not go down with the ship. We quit because things have ran their course and took all we had to give (yes, even the reserves that persistence burns in order for you to keep going). Sometimes we quit exactly because we’re not quitters but problem solvers and expert cost-benefit analysts, and the decision to quit, no matter how logical it is, is highly personal. Resources are precious things in every domain and stubbornness is not always a virtue. The better leader you become through life the clearer the picture of intelligent quitting and course correction becomes, and it becomes that way only through practice. It is not a set of rules to remember but a skill to be developed. Don’t get to ego attached to your plan, there are multiple ways of getting to the same goal and also don’t allow to be shamed for quitting something and changing direction. Life is a free style dance not a march in formation you’re not allowed to break.